Effectiveness of Nursing Assessment in Reduction of Fall Incident

Abstract

Introduction: The individual have a chance of falls when they walk on the wet floors or mobilize from their position during imbalance in physical conditions. In hospitalized patients, this incidence is one of the major adverse events that institutions need to prevent. This incidence is directly related to patient safety and may increase the duration of hospitalization and may interfere with the individual’s recovery. Falls can be affected by multiple factors and have consequences for the patient, such as: damage, extended length of hospitalization and increased costs of care. Objectives: (1) To identify the risk of fall in hospitalized patients, (2) To find out the major causes of fall in hospitalized patients. Methodology: This quantitative study was carried out in a selected hospital located in Pondicherry. In this study, approximately 1268 in-patients from a hospital located in Pondicherry were taken using a convenience sampling method and the incident report was used as a tool to collect the data for patients fall in hospitalized patients. Major findings: From the study, it was found that 8 patients’ fall has been recorded from January 2019 to June 19. In that, the major fall occurred in the month of February 19 is 0.31% and the least fall occurrence was in April 2019 and it also found to be no incidence of fall in the month of January 2019 and May 2019. As per the analysis report of January 2019 to June 2019 the inpatient hospital days for every 1000 patients, the incidence of the fall is less than 1 in a large teaching hospital located in Pondicherry. Most found out the reason for the incidence of falls is due to careless walk-in bathroom and sleep fall. Conclusion: This study proves that the incidence of falls occurs mostly due to careless walk-in bathroom and sleep fall hence the precaution measures can be taken. The patient after assessment with Morse fall scale and found to be in risk should be monitored during their activity and health education to be given to the patient as well as to the family members. In addition to this, the patient is at the level of risk to be provided with side rails and to be accompanied by the nurse while they are moving out of bed. The health care workers should also ensure that the floors are to be dry to prevent the patient from the incidence of falls.