Mitigating Falls in Elderly Patients in Acute Care Facilities
Consider the population in which the solution is intended, the staff that will participate, and the key contributors that must provide approval and/or support for your project to be implemented. These stakeholders are considered your audience.
Develop an implementation plan (1,500-2,000 words) using the "Topic 3: Checklist" resource. The elements that should be included in your plan are listed below:
Method of obtaining necessary approval(s) and securing support from your organization's leadership and fellow staff.
Description of current problem, issue, or deficit requiring a change. Hint: If you are proposing a change in current policy, process, or procedure(s) when delivering patient care, describe first the current policy, process, or procedure as a baseline for comparison.
Detailed explanation of proposed solution (new policy, process, procedure, or education to address the problem/deficit).
Rationale for selecting proposed solution.
Evidence from your Review of Literature in Topic 2 to support your proposed solution and reason for change.
Description of implementation logistics (When and how will the change be integrated into the current organizational structure, culture, and workflow? Who will be responsible for initiating the change, educating staff, and overseeing the implementation process?)
Resources required for implementation: staff; educational materials (pamphlets, handouts, posters, and PowerPoint presentations); assessment tools (questionnaires, surveys, pre- and post-tests to assess knowledge of participants at baseline and after intervention); technology (technology or software needs); funds (cost of educating staff, printing or producing educational materials, gathering and analyzing data before, during, and following implementation), and staff to initiate, oversee, and evaluate change.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.
PROFESSIONAL RESEARCH
By
Institution
Mitigating Falls in Elderly Patients in Acute Care Facilities
The desire to have an idea implemented in an organization always appears to be an uphill task however brilliant it is. Convincing the audience to buy the idea and the executive to fund it requires a sober approach. In this case, implementation of a policy to mitigate falls in elderly patients in acute care facilities shall require input from various stakeholders to reduce falls instances. This discusses the method to follow in obtaining support for the idea in a hospital, the description of the idea and the requirements of the policy.
Obtaining approval and support
The policy shall affect the hospital staff, patients, and their families. Therefore, in order to make the idea acceptable and improve its likelihood for success, the concerned parties and colleagues shall have the wind first. By informing and discussing with fellow staff members in the acute care department, nurses, the patients, ambulance drivers, and members of the hospital administration shall be helpful in building alliances and gathering important additional information for the project (Gallo, 2010). The input from experts shall also be imperative in decision-making. Before the presentation, enough preparation shall follow, in order to gauge the audience reactions for a positive response, and to plan for effective way of responding to important questions.
The presentation shall aim to position the idea to the audience to enable them create a right mindset towards accepting the idea. The audience shall get information on how the policy shall help the hospital in avoiding injuries, preventing extension of patients’ hospital stay through injuries sustained in falls, and its effectiveness in saving lives. The presentation shall also be in simple language to prevent the audience finding it difficult to fathom some ideas and words. As Gallo (2010) further mentions, the answering of the questions with confidence shall aid in communicating to the audience about the seriousness of the idea.
Description of the Old and New Policy
Falls is a major health concern and occurs among elderly patients with several impairments in the domains of sensory, cognitive and gait (Berry, Kiel, Schmader, & Sokol, 2016). This has several implications such as emotional and physical injuries leading to poor quality of life among the patients (Stern & Jayasekara, 2009). Additionally this may lead to longer stay in the hospital, increase in hospital liability and cause functional decline among the patients. Falls has frequently occurred among elderly patients in acute hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes (Berry et al., 2016). According to Berry et al. (2016), 50% of the patients in the long-term care facilities fall every year. Nursing homes report 1.5 falls annually, 3.4 falls in acute rehabilitation centers, and 5% among ischemic stroke patients (Berry et al. 2016).
The risk posed on the patient’s health and quality of life by falls is immense. The older methods of falls management have not been effective in reducing the number of falls. Owing to the large discrepancy between reported incidences and limited research-based prevention models for mitigating these challenges, there is need for a complete overhaul of former practices. The current problems emanate from lack of real time alerts concerning falls incidences and patients’ susceptibility to falls, lack of protection, poor knowledge base among the patients, and lack of effective falls assessment criteria (Degelau, Belz, & Bungum, 2012). This has caused increased falls cases, placing high responsibility, and institutional liability to prevent and reduce these cases.
According to Hempel et al. (2013), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the U.S. stopped reimbursing hospitals for falls trauma. This means that hospitals must create sustainable policies to manage falls and reduce costs and liability. Additionally, there are gaps noticed in the old policy such as lack of adequate education on the patients and their families concerning fall risks and prevention plans, lack of standardized consistent communication procedure concerning falls risks and prevention plans, and lack of proper orientation plan for newly recruited staff into the hospital’s falls prevention culture (Coppedge, Conner, & Se, 2016). These contribute to high falls. The new policy shall properly address these gaps. The new policy shall ensure placement of proper strategies to ensure interventions, formulation of appropriate intervention components and ensuring adherence to the intervention policy (Hempel et al. 2013).
New policy in detail
The need to have falls prevention strategies is critical. Falls causes significant fatal and non-fatal injuries among older patients in critical hospital settings, and may result to significant mortality and morbidity (Berry et al., 2016). Most of the conditions that lead to falls are preventable. The risk factors associated with falls, mainly result from lack of assessment or attention from the patient and the medical team side. Falls may evade clinical attention because of the patient avoiding to alert the medical team of the event, lack of injury during the fall, the health team failing to evaluate the history of falls from the patient, or the patient and the medical team ignoring falls as an important issue in the aging process (Berry et al., 2016). The treatment of falls often does not include investigation into its cause, and may cause long-term effect.
The large number of researches and recommendations from health professionals has largely informed th...