Journal of Patient Safety & Quality Improvement

Journal of Patient Safety & Quality Improvement

Effect of Patient Fall Prevention Program on Nurses' Knowledge and the Number of Patient Falls in one of the Teaching Hospitals in Mashhad during 2019

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Zolikha Saadati 1
Maliheh Sadeghnezhad 2
Maliheh Siasar 3
Marzieh Rajaeinasab 3
Maryam Touri 3
1 MSc in Nursing, Nursing Manager of Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
2 Ph.D in Nursing, Expert of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Office, Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
3 BSc in Nursing, Expert of Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Office, Ghaem Hospital, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
10.22038/psj.2020.48423.1272
Abstract
Introduction:
This study aimed to evaluate the effect of a patient fall prevention program on nurses’ knowledge and number of patients falls in one of the teaching hospitals in Mashhad, Iran.
Materials and Methods:
This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 600 nurses working in a hospital affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. The participants were selected via a proportionate stratification sampling method. The fall prevention program included two educational posters and a booklet that introduced key points regarding the prevention of patient falls based on the standard guidelines. The participants were asked to respond to a researcher-made questionnaire that measured their knowledge of patient fall prevention at pretest and posttest. The number of patient falls was evaluated before and after the prevention program. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 25) through descriptive and inferential (Wilcoxon test). A p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results:
There was a significant difference between the scores of pretest and posttest regarding the nurses’ knowledge (p <0.001). Moreover, the examination of the number of falls in three months before and after the patient fall prevention program showed a significant decrease (63%) in the patient falls.
Conclusion:
The results demonstrated that the provision of prevention programs in this study had a significant impact on the improvement of patient safety level by reducing the number of patient falls through increasing the knowledge of nurses and awareness of patients.
Keywords
Nurses
Patient fall
Patient safety
Prevention
Prevention program
  1. Lunsford B, Wilson L. Assessing Your Patients’ Risk For Falling. American Nurse Today. 2015; 10(7):29-31.
  2. Hill AM, McPhail SM, Waldron N, Etherton-Beer C, Ingram K, Flicker L, et al. Fall rates in hospital rehabilitation units after individualised patient and staff education programmes: a pragmatic, stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised controlled trial. The Lancet. 2015;385(9987): 2592-9.
  3. Ganz D, Huang C, Saliba D. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Preventing falls in hospitals: A toolkit for improving quality of care. 2013.
  4. Townsend AB, Valle-Ortiz M, Sansweet T. A Successful ED Fall Risk Program Using the KINDER 1 Fall RiskAssessment Tool. Journal of Emergency Nursing. 2016;42(6):492-7.
  5. Fields J, Alturkistani T, Kumar N, Kanuri A, Salem DN, Munn S, et al. Prevalence And Cost Of Imaging In Inpatient Falls: The Rising Cost Of Falling. ClinicoEconomics and outcomes research: CEOR. 2015;7:281.
  6. Mazur K, Wilczyński K, Szewieczek J. Geriatric Falls In The Context Of A Hospital Fall Prevention Program: Delirium, Low Body Mass Index, And Other Risk Factors. Clinical Interventions In Aging. 2016;11:1253.
  7. Mostofian F. Preventing Patient Fall Guideline (Persian). Office of Hospital Management and Clinical Excellence, Deputy of Treatment, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Iran. 2014.
  8. Ortelli TA. AHRQ Resources for Preventing Falls in Hospitals. AJN The American Journal of Nursing. 2018;118(5):63-4.
  9. Valizadeh L, Zabihi A. Risk Factors For Falling Among Hospital Inpatients J Babol Univ Med Sci 2014;16(1):75-84.
  10. Gettens S, Fulbrook P. Fear Of Falling: Association Between The M Odified F Alls E Fficacy S Cale, In‐Hospital Falls And Hospital Length Of Stay. Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice. 2015;21(1):43-50.
  11. Amirian Z, Jalali R. Assessment Of Hospitalized Patients Fall Out Of Bed In Hospitals Of Kermanshah University Of Medical Sciences. J Clin Res Paramed Sci 2014;3(2):
    130-4.
  12. Barker AL, Morello RT, Wolfe R, Brand CA, Haines TP, Hill KD, et al. 6-PACK programme to decrease fall injuries in acute hospitals: cluster randomised controlled trial. bmj. 2016; 352: h6781.
  13. Aydin C, Donaldson N, Aronow HU, Fridman M, Brown DS. Improving Hospital Patient Falls: Leveraging Staffing Characteristics And Processes Of Care. Jona: The Journal Of Nursing Administration. 2015;45(5):254-62.
  14. Weil TP. Patient Falls In Hospitals: An Increasing Problem. Geriatric Nursing. 2015; 36(5): 342-7.
  15. Shali M, Joolaee S, Hooshmand A, Haghani H, Masoumi H. The relationship between incidence of patient falls and nurses’ professional commitment (Persian). Hayat, Journal of School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. 2016; 22(1): 27-37.
  16. Khademian Z. Mutual support: A solution to improve patient safety during nurses' work overload. Iranian journal of nursing and midwifery research. 2019;24(6):475.
  17. Tzeng HM, Yin CY. Patient Engagement In Hospital Fall Prevention. Nursing Economics. 2015; 33(6):326.
  18. Gu YY, Balcaen K, Ni Y, Ampe J, Goffin J. Review On Prevention Of Falls In Hospital Settings. Chinese Nursing Research. 2016; 3(1): 7-10.
  19. O’Neil CA, Krauss MJ, Bettale J, Kessels A, Costantinou E, Dunagan WC, et al. Medications And Patient Characteristics Associated With Falling In The Hospital. Journal Of Patient Safety. 2018;14(1):27.
  20. Brosey LA, March KS. Effectiveness Of Structured Hourly Nurse Rounding On Patient Satisfaction And Clinical Outcomes. Journal of Nursing Care Quality. 2015;30(2):153-9.
  21. Goldsack J, Bergey M, Mascioli S, Cunningham J. Hourly Rounding And Patient Falls: What Factors Boost Success? Nursing 2019. 2015;45(2):25-30.
  22. Panjaitan MO, Banase AF, Rebilla M, Pakpahan M, editors. The Correlation Between Knowledge And Attitude Of Nurses On The Implementation Of Prevention Of The Falling Risk Patients In A Private Hospital In Central Indonesia Region. First International Conference on Health Development; 2019.

 

Journal of Patient Safety & Quality Improvement
Volume 8, Issue 4
Autumn 2020
Pages 187-192