Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths and Injuries

This education activity aims to disseminate a clear understanding among nursing professionals about effective fall prevention strategies to reduce the episodes of fall among the elderly within a care setting.

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Title: Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths and Injuries
Goal:
According to a report published by El-Khoury et al. (2013), senior adults form an
average 15% of the total Australian population. It should be noted in this context that falls
form a major health issue among the elderly. Also, falls account for 7% of the total
hospitalization rate (Ungar et al. 2013). In addition to this, fall related accidents lead to a
cumulative medical expenditure of approximately $ 139-209 million (Pfortmueller et al.
2014). Research reports suggest that the cumulative medical expenditure is expected to rise
up to $ 321- 482 million by the end of the year 2051 (Ungar et al. 2013). It should be noted in
this context that fall prevention programs could progressively help in reducing the incidences
of fall among the elderly. Therefore, this education activity intends to disseminate a clear
understanding among the nursing professionals about effective fall prevention strategies so as
to reduce the episodes of fall among the elderly within a care setting. The central theme of the
paper is to integrate knowledge among care professionals to clearly identify the risk factors
that could lead to fall among the elderly. The target audience for the education program
would comprise of Graduate nurses who have freshly entered into the Gerontology unit. As
per Stevens and Phelan (2013), it has been mentioned that Graduate nurses working in
collaboration with experienced registered nursing professionals display better care delivery.
As stated by Hempel et al. (2013), Graduate nurses are inexperienced in terms of professional
technicalities and on working in close association with experienced professionals can exhibit
enhanced performance output. According to Aranda-Gallardo et al. (2013), a combination of
role modelling, practical training as well as reflective practice can help in enhancing the
practicum experience of the professionals and help in enhancing holistic outcome.
Background and Justification:

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
In order to improve the holistic patient outcome, it is extremely important to ensure
that care professionals are equipped with the professional skills to identify the risk factors
that could lead to fall related accidents. It should be noted in this context that nursing
professionals within a healthcare setting must be able to access the risk factors so as to ensure
prevention from falls among the elderly (Ambrose et al. 2013). Nurses must be able to
critically access the healthcare environment and accordingly adapt measures to foster a safe
care environment. According to (), the use of the STEADI risk assessment tool helps in
identifying a high risk environment that could lead to fall related accidents (Cdc.gov, 2019).
It should be noted here that the development of the STEADI risk assessment tool is
comparatively new and earlier the Hendrick II Fall Risk Model and STRATIFY scale was
widely used within the clinical environment (Cdc.gov, 2019). However, according to Kwan
and Straus (2014), the STEADI tool offers a complete fall assessment package and uses an
algorithm adapted by the American and British Geriatric Societies. As mentioned by
Ambrose et al. (2013), the use of the STEADI tool has been proven to yield positive patient
outcome and reduce the episodes of fall among the elderly patients. However, it should be
noted here that care professionals must be able to make effective use of the tool in order to
prevent the incidences of fall and foster a secured environment for the old age patients.
Detail of the activity:
As has already been discussed in the previous sections of the essay, the target
population for the education program would comprise of the set of Graduate nursing
professionals working within the Geriatric Unit of the hospital. The learning objective would
be delivered to the participants by means of a power point presentation. The nurses would be
contacted via e-mail and a training workshop would be imparted. The training workshop
would clearly present details about the STEADI Risk Assessment Tool. The workshop would
clearly define the precautionary measures that would help in securing the clinical

3NURSING ASSIGNMENT
environment. In addition to this, it would also assist professionals to comfortably
communicate with the patients about fall and related injuries. Further, it would also help
nurses in correctly using the fall risk checklist and the patient referral form (Hempel et al.
2013). Also, the learning material would comprise of practical examples and case-studies
which would help in developing a better concept about the learning objective. Further, nurses
would also be informed about the community programs available and according taught about
the referral scheme. It should be crucially noted in this context that the education program
would be imparted by a team of RNs and would be conducted over two days (Stevens &
Phelan, 2013). After the completion of the program, the Graduate Nurses would be
segregated into teams under one RN who would supervise the level of their clinical
performance. In addition to this, the participants would also fill out a survey form which
would comprise of questions that would test the understanding ability as well as the level of
competency of the nurses after attending the education program. The rationale for the
inclusion of RNs as supervisors within the team can be explained as the integration of role
model method of teaching so as to foster better conceptual understanding (Ungar et al. 2013).
Also, the statistical evaluation of the survey responses acquired would help in assessing the
effectiveness of the education program and co-relate it with the patient outcome.
Conclusion:
Therefore, to conclude, it should be mentioned that a large number of research studies
reveal that fall among the elderly accounts for the highest rate of hospitalization and
invariably leads to a number of problems such as hip bone fracture, limb fracture or related
injuries. On the basis of the review of literatures it can be explained that imparting education
in relation to risk assessment of the elderly would help in securing a safe clinical environment
which would help in reducing the episodes of fall among the old age patients. It should
further be noted in this regard that the proposed education program would comprise of

4NURSING ASSIGNMENT
imparting education to the Graduate nurses about the use of the STEADI tool. The target
population would comprise of Graduate nurses who would be taught about the STEADI risk
assessment tool in order to secure the environment and prevent the incidence of fall among
the elderly.

5NURSING ASSIGNMENT
References:
Ambrose, A.F., Paul, G. and Hausdorff, J.M., (2013). Risk factors for falls among older
adults: a review of the literature. Maturitas, 75(1), pp.51-61. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.maturitas.2013.02.009
Aranda-Gallardo, M., Morales-Asencio, J.M., Canca-Sanchez, J.C., Barrero-Sojo, S., Perez-
Jimenez, C., Morales-Fernandez, A., de Luna-Rodriguez, M.E., Moya-Suarez, A.B.
and Mora-Banderas, A.M., (2013). Instruments for assessing the risk of falls in acute
hospitalized patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC health services
research, 13(1), p.122.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-13-122
Cdc.gov (2019). Materials for Healthcare Providers | STEADI - Older Adult Fall Prevention
| CDC Injury Center. [online] Cdc.gov. Available at:
https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/materials.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2019].
El-Khoury, F., Cassou, B., Charles, M. A., & Dargent-Molina, P. (2013). The effect of fall
prevention exercise programmes on fall induced injuries in community dwelling older
adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. BMj, 347,
f6234. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6234
Hempel, S., Newberry, S., Wang, Z., Booth, M., Shanman, R., Johnsen, B., ... & Ganz, D. A.
(2013). Hospital fall prevention: a systematic review of implementation, components,
adherence, and effectiveness. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 61(4), 483-
494. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.12169
Kwan, E., & Straus, S. E. (2014). Assessment and management of falls in older
people. CMAJ, 186(16), E610-E621. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.131330

6NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Pfortmueller, C. A., Lindner, G., & Exadaktylos, A. K. (2014). Reducing fall risk in the
elderly: risk factors and fall prevention, a systematic review. Minerva Med, 105(4),
275-81.Retrieved from:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Carmen_Pfortmueller/publication/
261605389_Fall-
Related_Emergency_Department_Admission_Fall_Environment_and_Settings_and_
Related_Injury_Patterns_in_6357_Patients_with_Special_Emphasis_on_the_Elderly/
links/544672540cf2f14fb80f3c76/Fall-Related-Emergency-Department-Admission-
Fall-Environment-and-Settings-and-Related-Injury-Patterns-in-6357-Patients-with-
Special-Emphasis-on-the-Elderly.pdf
Stevens, J. A., & Phelan, E. A. (2013). Development of STEADI: a fall prevention resource
for health care providers. Health promotion practice, 14(5), 706-714. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839912463576
Ungar, A., Rafanelli, M., Iacomelli, I., Brunetti, M. A., Ceccofiglio, A., Tesi, F., &
Marchionni, N. (2013). Fall prevention in the elderly. Clinical Cases in mineral and
bone metabolism, 10(2), 91. Retrieved from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797008/