Proposal: Education Tool for Reducing Fall Risk in Elderly Care

This report identifies the risk of falls among elderly patients as a critical area of specialization within the healthcare setting and proposes an educational tool to address the identified gaps in healthcare professionals' knowledge and prioritization of fall prevention strategies. The analysis highlights that...Read More

Task description:
Identify an area of specialisation in the health setting which interests you. Using research,
identify a gap in education which has an impact on outcomes. Write a proposal for an
education tool to help close this gap.
Criterion 1:
Identifies an area of specialty within the health setting 50 words 6%
The chosen area of specialty for this assessment within the health setting is risk of fall
among elderly patients in the healthcare facility. As per the World Health Organisation
(2018), 28 to 35% of individuals over the age of 60 are prone to fall within healthcare
facilities and hence, this was chosen as the area of specialty for this assessment.
Criterion 2:
Relevant research of a high level is used to identify an educational gap within this
specialty area 300-400 words 15%
It has been seen in the research conducted by Reeves et al. (2013), the healthcare
facilities are concerned about the risk of fall among elderly patient and in the course they
implement several interventions which helps them to prevent or control the episodes of
falls among elderly patients. In the course, the incidents were mentioned where the
nursing professionals were not aware of the strategies that has been implemented by the
government and the healthcare ministry, which should be complied by the healthcare
facilities so that incidents of falls and associated circumstances could be avoided.
Therefore, in this research article, the identified gap was associated to the knowledge and
understanding of the healthcare professionals about fall prevention strategies
implemented within the facilities.
The second article which determines the healthcare professionals and their preference of
providing care to patients and in the research article it was seen that healthcare facilities
provide holistic care to the elderly patients however, fall prevention is not in their priority
and the complete care is centered for interventions and its application (Quigley and
White 2013). This shows the educational gap among the healthcare professionals as they
are unable to understand the requirement of fall prevention strategies for elderly
patients. Further, in the research process, the researcher determined hospital based fall
prevention measurements and importance of reliability for the healthcare facilities so
that patients and their trust could be protected. These research findings about
educational gaps were identified in other research processes done by Karlsson et al.
(2013) and Reeves et al. (2013), where they discussed about the importance of fall
prevention strategies for older adults who are mostly prone to severe falls in healthcare
facilities and which could increase their risk of injury and hospital stay. Further, these
educational gaps identified are the reason due to which holistic care could not be
provided to the patients and unequal distribution of healthcare occurs.

Abrahamson, K.A., Fox, R.L. and Doebbeling, B.N., 2012. Facilitators and barriers to clinical
practice guideline use among nurses. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 112(7), pp.26-
35.
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.
Flarity, K., Gentry, J.E. and Mesnikoff, N., 2013. The effectiveness of an educational
program on preventing and treating compassion fatigue in emergency nurses. Advanced
emergency nursing journal, 35(3), pp.247-258.
Gillespie, L.D., Robertson, M.C., Gillespie, W.J., Sherrington, C., Gates, S., Clemson, L.M.
and Lamb, S.E., 2012. Interventions for preventing falls in older people living in the
community. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (9).
Karlsson, M.K., Magnusson, H., von Schewelov, T. and Rosengren, B.E., 2013. Prevention
of falls in the elderly—a review. Osteoporosis International, 24(3), pp.747-762.
Lin, F.R. and Ferrucci, L., 2012. Hearing loss and falls among older adults in the United
States. Archives of internal medicine, 172(4), pp.369-371.
Miake-Lye, I.M., Hempel, S., Ganz, D.A. and Shekelle, P.G., 2013. Inpatient fall prevention
programs as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review. Annals of internal
medicine, 158(5_Part_2), pp.390-396.
Quigley, P. and White, S., 2013. Hospital-based fall program measurement and
improvement in high reliability organizations. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in
Nursing, 18(2).
Reeves, S., Perrier, L., Goldman, J., Freeth, D. and Zwarenstein, M., 2013.
Interprofessional education: effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes
(update). Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 3(3).
Reeves, S., Perrier, L., Goldman, J., Freeth, D. and Zwarenstein, M., 2013.
Interprofessional education: effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes
(update). Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 3(3).
Wells, L.G., 2012. Why don’t intensive care nurses perform routine delirium assessment?
A discussion of the literature. Australian Critical Care, 25(3), pp.157-161.
World Health Organization 2018. Falls. [online] Who.int. Available at:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/falls [Accessed 7 Jan. 2019].
Criterion 3:
Analysis of impact of educational gap undertaken 200-300 words 25%

While analyzing the research articles included in this assessment, it was determined that
lack of understanding, not prioritizing this specific issue as the primary aspect of care for
older people and engaging such patients in their fall prevention program are the
educational gaps which are affecting the health and outcome for the elder patients who
are at the risk of fall within or outside healthcare facilities (Miake-Lye et al. 2013). In the
research of Abrahamson, Foxand Doebbeling(2012), it was mentioned that majority of the
elderly patients are in delirium or disturbed state due to which they are unable to focus
on instructions of the nursing professionals. However, the nursing professionals lack the
idea of educating and prioritizing fall prevention as equal to healthcare interventions so
that patient and their delirium could be decreased and their fall related situation could be
prevented (Quigley and White 2012).
Further in the research of Flarity, Gentry and Mesnikoff(2012), it was seen that healthcare
professionals while caring for elderly patients are only concerned about the primary
health condition, which present them to the healthcare facility and are unable to
implement fall preventive measures. Besides this, if the healthcare data collected from
different healthcare facilities around the world is noted, falls are one of the most
important reason due to which, non-fatal injuries, healthcare facility admissions and it has
also been witnessed that 31 to 51% of the patients within the healthcare facility suffer
from falls (Quigley and White 2013). On the other hand, there are healthcare regulations
implemented within the facilities which are also not being followed by the nursing
professionals due to which patients suffer from this severe risk and hence, this
educational gap present within the healthcare system should be addressed (Gillespie et
al. 2012). Therefore, this topic is relevant to be discussed in this assessment as falls could
be the primary reason for severe injuries and death among elderly population within
healthcare facility (Karlsson et al. 2013).
Criterion 4:
Target audience for education tool clearly identified 100 words 14%
Despite the fact the both elderly patients and nursing professionals are with educational
gap, responsibility of nursing professionals to care for patients and prevent their fall
episodes is important and hence, they will be the target audience for the educational
tool. Further, prevention and safety is one of the important aspect of holistic care as per
Ambrose, Pauland Hausdorff(2013) and it is the responsibility of the healthcare
professionals to impart these aspects within care process so that quality care could be
provided to the elderly patients as they are prone to fall due to their health condition of
delirium (Wells 2012). Hence, the carer group will be chosen as the target audience in this
scenario.
Criterion 5:
Provides clear details of proposed education tool 250 words 30%
The educational tool which has been chosen to mitigate the education gap present in the
healthcare system is the audio visual system and to implement that a detailed power
point presentation will be prepared (Miake-Lye et al. 2013). This presentation will address
all the above-mentioned gap present in the healthcare professional’s attitude towards fall
prevention within healthcare facility and then will help them to understand the
importance of it so that hospital stay of patients could be reduced and quality of the care

process could be increased (Reeves et al. 2013). This presentation will comprise the
detailed data of healthcare accidents occurred due to fall among elderly patients and
then the fall prevention strategies provided by the world health organization will be
compared with the healthcare facilities strategies and after that the nursing professionals
will be asked to provide their feedback or changes they want to implement in the care
process so that implementation could be achieved (Miake-Lye et al. 2013). This
presentation further will include concerns and issues faced by some registered nurses and
professionals while handing the care process for elderly patients and while implementing
fall prevention strategy within care process so that each nursing professional within the
care facility could understand the issues and take effective measures (Linand Ferrucci
2012). The primary aim of the power point presentation about fall prevention among
elderly patient is to provide educational and training knowledge to the nursing
professionals and make the fall prevention strategy among their top priorities while
caring for a patient so that with medication and other interventions, fall prevention could
also be implemented in the healthcare process (Reeves et al. 2013).
Template for use for assessment 1