Importance of Preventing Patients from Falls and Injuries

This reflective study discusses the importance of preventing patients from sudden falls and injuries. It includes a case study of a 75-year-old patient named William Taylor. The study highlights the significance of effective communication and person-centered care in nursing. It also emphasizes the role of family members in the quick recovery of patients. The study concludes with an action plan for reducing the incidence of falls. References are included.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
This assignment is going to discuss about the importance in preventing patients from
sudden falls and also in preventing them from getting injured. This assignment is a reflective
study on the health records of a 75years old patient named, William Taylor. The health records
of the patient showed that he was injured seriously after he suffered a sudden fall and because of
which he could not do any with his right hand. The experiences of the patients help the nurse to
improve the quality of care services (Edvardsson, Watt & Pearce, 2017). The nurses need to
communicate properly with the patient so that the patients share the health issues with them
without any hesitations (Flickinger, et al., 2016).
Discussion
Description
The patient of this case study is an aged man of 75 years of age who had just faced a
sudden fall. The patient admitted that he was suffering from intense pain. His family members
wanted him to take admission in the local hospital but he did not want that and he just wanted to
go and meet with his general practitioner. He was administered with only physiotherapy which
improved his conditions. When the patient was asked whether he was admitted to the hospital in
past or not, he told that yes once he was admitted the hospital for suffering from kidney stones.
The patient described his feelings with agony that the experience of the last time was severe. He
was kept in the waiting room in spite of suffering from such pain. He was kept 11 hours
completely unnoticed. The two themes that can be identified are effective communication and
person centered approach. The nurses must know how to communicate with the patients. It is the
way of the communication that the nurses do with the nurses upon which the nursing therapeutic

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relationships are dependent. The way to communicate with persons of different age groups must
also be different. The aged persons and the children must be spoken politely as they need more
care than the adults. The next theme is the person centered care. As per the information provided
by the patient, he did not received person centered care in the first hospital experience. A patient
who had been suffering from kidney stones must not be kept unnoticed till 11 hours. The way the
nurse communicated with the patient was appropriate in maintaining the professional
relationships. The patient described all his medical records without hesitating anything.
Feelings and thoughts
Before my interaction with the patient I had no idea about how the registered nurses of
the hospital could neglect their duties towards the patients. The nurse who took care of him
deteriorated the reputation of the hospital by committing activities of legal consideration. The
nurses lost their professional identities by committing these activities. The core value of nursing
are empathy, communication, teaching, critical thinking, applied therapeutics, legal and ethical
considerations and professionalism (Butenko, Lockwood & McArthur, 2017). I felt that the
nurses who treated him violated all the nursing values. The experiences of the patients led us to
conclude that the nurses violated the ethical and legal considerations by providing improper
treatment to him. They lacked the ability of critical thinking and applied therapeutics. They
should have provided him proper medicines within proper time to avoid any future
consequences. If I was there in spite of those nurses, I would have taken care of the patient in a
much better way.
Values and beliefs
My feelings are very much affected by the certain nursing values and beliefs. The nursing
values and beliefs which affected me the most are empathy or care, communication, nursing

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skills, knowledge of therapeutics and legal considerations. It is the duty of the nurses to focus on
the experiences of the patient (Harrison et al., 2015). The empathy is completely based on the
experiences of the patient which is also one of the fundamentals of the nurses in taking care of
the patients. The nurses at the time of taking care of the patient of the case study did not show
empathy to the patient. They did not bothered about the severity of the disease that he was
suffering from. The nurses lacked the ability of critical thinking as they were not proficient in
properly assessing the disease. The values and the beliefs are not only important to the nurses but
also to the patients (Sharp, McAllister & Broadbent, 2016). If the nurses provide the patients
with complete care services by following all the nursing values and beliefs, then the relation of
the nurse with the patient will also become stronger.
Analysis
While analyzing the case study it can be said the family members play an essential role in
the quick recovery of the patients. The patient got admitted in the hospital twice and received
two different types of behaviors. The patient was not treated well at the time of his first
admission in the hospital. He was left unnoticed for 11 hours while he was suffering from
unbearable pain. The nurses only gave him some medicines to combat the pain for the time
being. He was not communicated properly and so he could not even got the chance of sharing his
feelings. The patient described that the nurses were emphasizing on anemia where the patient
was not suffering from anemia. He was only suffering from hypertension, so chances are there
for him to suffer from diabetes. I was communicating properly with him when he was
administered second time after he hurt himself after falling into the ground (Paternotte et al.,
2015). The communication is the exchange of ideas, thoughts, message and information in the
nursing processes (Thomson et al., 2015). The nurse and the patients exchanges their ideas and

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thoughts through the communication. By communicating with him, I came to know in details
about the family members of the patients and the ways about how they treat the patient. The
family members also play a significant role in caring the patients. In some cases, the negligence
of the family members lead to the patient to suffer from severe diseases (Agénor et al., 2015).
However, in this case, the patient was blessed to have such caring family members, who did not
take much time in taking him to the nearby care facilities. I also tried my best to provide him
with advanced care services and appropriate medicines. I am very much concerned about my
professional identity. I always try to abide by the nursing professional standards as I do not want
to create any gap with the patient. It comes under ethical consideration if the nurses do not abide
by the nursing strategies. The family members of the patient have the rights to take legal actions
against the nurse. When he came to me after hurting his right hand, I took the necessary care
approaches and made him understand the need to follow the fall prevention strategies (Sharp,
McAllister & Broadbent, 2016). Patients who have tendencies to fall down must follow the
strategies of fall prevention.
Conclusion drawn
Before this incident I was not much aware about the fact that nurses can be so rude with
the patients who are suffering from severe health conditions. It is the duty of the nurses to
provide a comprehensive care to the patients. The positive sides of this experience is that I have
become experienced in providing the urgent care required by the patients who has just injured
himself after a fall. The other positive aspect is that I myself have become aware about the
symptoms of fall and the different fall prevention strategies which the patients must follow. The
negative aspects were that I was not aware about the fact that some nurses are still not aware of

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the nursing practices and the other negative side was that I realized that I was still not much
confident about the fall prevention strategies.
Action plan
For improving the conditions of the patient a proper action plan must be followed to
reduce the incidences of fall. A list has to be prepared consisting of the names of the medicines.
The number of times the patient had fallen before must be noted down. The patients must wear
sensible shoes to reduce the chances of fall. The hazard causing substances must be removed.
The living environment of the patient must be lighted up to avoid the chances of fall.
Conclusion
The experiences of the patients help the nurse in providing the patients with effective care
services. If the patients are not able to describe about the health issues to the nurses, it seriously
becomes difficult for the nurse to continue with the treatment procedures. So to understand the
patients and the diseases that they are suffering from it is very necessary to communicate with
them in an effective way. Effective communication bridges the gaps in between the nurses and
the patients. The nurses must not behave rudely with either the patients or the family members of
the patients.

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References
Agénor, M., Bailey, Z., Krieger, N., Austin, S. B., & Gottlieb, B. R. (2015). Exploring the
cervical cancer screening experiences of black lesbian, bisexual, and queer women: The
role of patient-provider communication. Women & health, 55(6), 717-736.
Butenko, S., Lockwood, C., & McArthur, A. (2017). Patient experiences of partnering with
healthcare professionals for hand hygiene compliance: a systematic review. JBI database
of systematic reviews and implementation reports, 15(6), 1645-1670.
Edvardsson, D., Watt, E., & Pearce, F. (2017). Patient experiences of caring and person‐
centredness are associated with perceived nursing care quality. Journal of Advanced
Nursing, 73(1), 217-227.
Flickinger, T. E., Saha, S., Roter, D., Korthuis, P. T., Sharp, V., Cohn, J., ... & Beach, M. C.
(2016). Respecting patients is associated with more patient-centered communication
behaviors in clinical encounters. Patient education and counseling, 99(2), 250-255.
Harrison, R., Walton, M., Manias, E., Smith–Merry, J., Kelly, P., Iedema, R., & Robinson, L.
(2015). The missing evidence: a systematic review of patients' experiences of adverse
events in health care. International journal for quality in health care, 27(6), 424-442.
Paternotte, E., van Dulmen, S., van der Lee, N., Scherpbier, A. J., & Scheele, F. (2015). Factors
influencing intercultural doctor–patient communication: A realist review. Patient
education and counseling, 98(4), 420-445.

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Sharp, S., McAllister, M., & Broadbent, M. (2016). The vital blend of clinical competence and
compassion: How patients experience person-centred care. Contemporary nurse, 52(2-3),
300-312.
Thomson, K., Outram, S., Gilligan, C., & Levett-Jones, T. (2015). Interprofessional experiences
of recent healthcare graduates: A social psychology perspective on the barriers to
effective communication, teamwork, and patient-centred care. Journal of
interprofessional care, 29(6), 634-640.