Prevention of Fall Amongst the Elderly Australia Assessment 2022

Running head: PREVENTION OF FALL AMONGST THE ELDERLY
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1
PREVENTION OF FALL AMONGST THE ELDERLY
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
DISCUSSION..................................................................................................................................3
Fall Injury Cases:.........................................................................................................................3
Model for Improvement:..............................................................................................................4
Effective Nursing:........................................................................................................................6
Analysis:......................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

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PREVENTION OF FALL AMONGST THE ELDERLY
INTRODUCTION
Inpatient falls are the most common incidents reported in today’s era. Falls have become
a major health issue in the Australian community too where around 30% of the adults who are of
65 years and above experience no less than one fall each year (Ambrose, Paul & Hausdorff,
2013). This is expected to rise as the population of Australia who are over 65 is predicted to
grow from 14% (3 million people) in 2010 to approximately 23% which is about 8.1 million
people in 2050 (Bradley, 2013). With a steady incidence rate the rate of falls is expected to
escalate to $1.4 billion in the year 2051. In New South Wales, it is expected that there will be a
rise in people who age 65 and above from 1.27 million individuals in the year 2017 to 2.27
million individuals in the year 2051 (Luk, Chan & Chan, 2015). This will eventually lead to an
increase of the cost of hip fractures from near about $139-209 million to $321-482 million in the
coming 34 years (Bradley, 2013).
In addition to this, falls with severe wounds which will result in death is again a most
reportable incident in the hospitals. The major share (26%) of fall injury cases were for the hip
and thigh injuries (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014). Out of which hip fractures accounted the
most at 74% followed by head injuries at 22% (Mitchell et al., 2013). It is also noticed that falls
not only affect the older population but can affect anyone who have become weak due to their
physical and medical ailments. Researches in the past have stated that one-third of the fall
happenings are preventable. It was also noted that the ratio of falls between male and female for
all the age groups was higher in case of females. Due to an increase in the fall events and the cost
of treatment for the same in hospitals, a falls prevention programme must be developed to reduce
the incident rates (Ambrose, Paul & Hausdorff, 2013).

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PREVENTION OF FALL AMONGST THE ELDERLY
DISCUSSION
Fall Injury Cases:
There have been studies carried out in the past related to falls in the elderly. The deaths
related to fall injuries account for nearly 40%. The authors in the past have noticed that people
who are of the age 65 years and above suffer around 22-60% injuries due to falls and 10-15%
undergo some serious surgeries. While fractures are seen for 2-6% of the population under study
and hip fractures for 0.2-1.5% (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014). Cuts, sprains and bruises were
some of the most common injuries that were reported. However, injuries such as hip fractures,
leg fractures, neck fractures and other fractures of ulna, radius were also common wounds but
these meant hospitalization. In the year 2014-15 due to falls, approximately 111222 people who
were 65 and above were hospitalized (Hammond & Wilson, 2013). This eventually led to 3% of
the hospitalization of the above mentioned age group due to falls. The cases for fall injuries
relating to hospitalization increased by 3% every year in case of male while 2% for female from
2002-03 to 2014-15 (Hammond & Wilson, 2013).
In terms of death and morbidity, fracture in the femur also called as hip fracture is the
most severe and costliest injury. Old people even take time to recover from such serious damages
and become vulnerable to the post- operation complications. In one study it was observed that
approximately 20000 admissions in the hospital of Australia arose due to femur fracture amongst
people above 50 years of age. The same study stated that nearly one third of the hip fracture
cases tend to survive but never really recover complete movements. In the older population of
Australia that is people above 85 years, the rate of head injury is particularly high. These seem to
have doubled between 2002 to 2015 for both males and females (Bird et al., 2013). Another
consequence of falls among elderly is that they remain on the floor for a longer duration such as