Leadership in Clinical Practice: Preventing Patient Falls in Healthcare Facilities

Running Head: LEADERSHIP IN CLINICAL PRACTICE 1
Leadership in Clinical Practice
Names
Institution

LEADERSHIP IN CLINICAL PRACTICE 2
Leadership in clinical practice
A patient fall is an unexpected falling to the floor or lower surface with or without an
injury to the patient. From the recent research, a fall is seen as a major public health issue not
only in the United States but also across the whole world (Kathy, 2013). There are three types of
a fall: accidental falls, anticipated or unanticipated physiological falls. Accidental falls can be
caused by slipping, tripping or any minor incident. Patients here are not at risk for fall but can
experience them due to unforeseen accidents that may occur.
Anticipated physiological falls are the ones attributed to the patient's age, ailment or
medication and are reflected to the risk profile of the victims. Therefore, these falls can easily be
predicted and prevented (Sandra, 2011). However, unanticipated falls are those which arise from
physiological reasons and their risks cannot be assessed because their causes are unforeseen. Out
of the three causes, anticipated physiological falls are the most common in hospitals making it to
78% of the falls. This means that majority of the falls in the health care centers can be prevented.
However, there are other types of falls which are not categorized under patient fall though they
may happen within health care facilities (Scott & Scott, 2010). These include falls by visitors,
staff members or patients under units not entitled to reporting. This is because a collapse is only
categorized under patient fall if it occurred in eligible reporting units.
A fall by a staff member can only be classified under patient fall if it happened while he
or she was trying to prevent the impact of a fall within eligible nursing reporting units (Jane,
2015). It is therefore important for health care providers to know the exact cause of a fall in
order to give correct guidelines to a patient on how they should prevent them.

LEADERSHIP IN CLINICAL PRACTICE 3
The recent researches show that there is an increased number of patients fall close to 45%
of the 1000 patients per day in all hospitals and other healthcare facilities. It is also confirmed
from the studies that most of these falls occur along bedsides or in the bathroom, most of them
being mentally ill or physically impaired patients with 30-35 % of them sustaining serious
injuries like internal bleeding or fractures (Khushminder, 2017). Studies also show that more
than one-third of these falls can be prevented. Although ways of preventing this patient fall have
been introduced in the hospital, most caregivers and patients have ignored them systematically.
Since patient fall has become a common thing in most of the hospitals and health centers,
health caregiver professionals should come up with ways to prevent this problem. This is
because some of these falls can lead to serious situations which may easily lead to death. Also,
they can lead to depression and also make a person stay inactive all through (Karen, 2015).
Minor fractures or soft tissue injuries resulting from a fall can lead to serious functional
impairment, pain, and distress. From the studies, it shows that patient fall has lead to increased
stay in health care services and poor health outcomes among 30- 45% of the patients whereby the
number increases day by day. This problem can be controlled if only proper guidelines can be
put in place within the hospitals.
The level or admissions due to trauma and readmissions resulting from patient fall have
also increased within the health care centers. A change is important for it will help reduce
dangers associated with a fall and also utilize the hospital facilities (Diamond, 2014). From the
research, it shows that a single fall with no serious injuries can cost hospital or health care center
over 3500 dollars. This results to waste of resources and time which they would have utilized
well in attending to other patients.