Evidence Based Practice for Fall Prevention in Neuro Patients

Running head: EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE
Evidence based practice
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1EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE
Introduction
Evidence based practice (EBP) is the judicious use of research evidence to identify best
practice interventions for the care of patient and effectively integrated it with clinical skills and
knowledge to improve patient outcomes, provide high quality care and reduce health cost. It
provides nurse the scope to professionally develop in practice and acquire evidence based skills
to improve the quality of care (DiCenso, Guyatt & Ciliska, 2014). The main purpose of the paper
is to analyse the issue of fall in neuro patients and then identify best evidence to prevent fall in
neuro patients using the steps of the EBP process.
Rational for fall in neuro patient as a practice issue:
Neuro patients involve those people who suffer from specific neurological conditions
such as stroke, dementia and other neurological conditions. Neurology inpatient units witness the
highest rate of fall events because of the presence of multiple risk factors for falls such as gait
problem, depression, cognitive deficits, muscles weakness, advancing age and use of
psychotropic medications (Hunderfund et al., 2011). Fall in such patients lead to many
psychological and physical morbidity for patients. Hence, fall in neuro patient may contribute to
serious injury and increased length of hospital stay. It also deteriorates health of patient and
make them dependent on social support and health care services for their activities of daily living
(Homann et al., 2013). It is also a practice issue for nurses or caregivers of neuro patients
because fall related injuries increased burden of care. Therefore, fall prevention is necessary to
ensure that neuro patients can lead an in independent life without the support from health or
social services.
EBP process to identify best evidence to prevent fall in neuro patients

2EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE
To prevent fall in neuro patients, identifying the best evidence that prevent fall in neuro
patient is necessary. This can be done by identifying by following the six steps of the EBP
process which are as follows:
1. Developing a guiding research question:
To search for the best article that defines the most effective intervention to prevent fall in
neuro-patient, developing a clinically guiding research question is important. The PICO question
that can help in finding relevant best practice research evidence is as follows:
Which type of interventions can reduce the risk of fall in neuro patients?
2. Searching for evidence from appropriate source
Based on the research question, important keywords like fall prevention and neuro patients
and interventions for fall prevention in neuro patients can used to search for articles in databases.
Similar process was followed for identifying the best intervention to prevent fall in neuro
patients too (Hall & Roussel 2016). Based on the use of search terms, research studies were
found which reported about various types of fall prevention intervention in neurological care unit
were analysed.
3. Critical appraisal of the selected evidence
The review revealed fall risk assessment as an important strategy to reduce fall events in
neurology units. Two research evidences gave idea about the effectiveness of fall risk assessment
process in preventing falls. All the three studies used fall risk assessment protocol in the fall
prevention program. Goljar et al. (2016) used the Assessment Sheet for Fall Prediction in Stroke
Inpatients (ASFPSI) to assess fall risk. The credibility of the tool was defines by giving evidence