Masters Thesis

Measuring the effectiveness of a flexible multidisciplinary hourly round fall prevention program

Fall occurrence rates remain high in hospital settings throughout the United States. Hospitals often use fall prevention programs to decrease the risk of inpatient falls and impact patient outcomes; knowing which combination of evidence based fall prevention strategies are best to implement can be challenging. Objective: ‘Measuring the Effectiveness of a Flexible Multidisciplinary Hourly Round Fall Prevention Program’ examined the effectiveness and feasibility of the Flexible Multidisciplinary Hourly Round Fall Prevention Program (LEAF Program) in the trauma setting. Methods: The number of falls six months post intervention were compared with the number of falls in the six months prior to the implementation of the program and descriptive correlational data were gathered using a computerized survey to determine difficulties and challenges experienced by the nursing staff with this fall prevention program. Results: 25 falls occurred during the six months preceding implementation of the LEAF Program (n=6, μ=4.17, σ=2.48) with a total of 6,450 patient days and a six month fall rate of 3.876. A total of 22 falls occurred during the six months after the implementation of the LEAF Program (n=6, μ=3.67, σ=0.82) with a total of 6,468 patient days and a fall rate of 3.40 (t=0.5906, df=5, 95% CI). The result was a two-tailed p-value of 0.5805, a difference not considered statistically significant. Nurse concerns included participation, time, charting, and education. Conclusion: The LEAF program is a feasible fall prevention program in the trauma setting with the potential for improvement by addressing nurse concerns and the need for additional research (root cause analysis of falls, population specifics, patient specific fall data).

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