Date of Graduation

Fall 12-14-2017

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

First Advisor

Dr. Diane Torkelson

Abstract

The objective of this project is to reduce patient falls by 25% at the end of September 2018 on the medical-surgical unit. Another objective is to retrain staff on fall prevention measures. The medical-surgical unit provides care to patients who are acutely ill with a wide variety of medical issues. The project started with a staff survey where the staff state their top safety concerns. Results show that 75% of the staff felt that patient falls was a top safety concern. Based on the survey findings, I began to research CINAHL Complete and PubMed databases, along with Google Scholar to find articles that could support the project. Falls prevention pamphlets were handed out at team huddles, and kept at visible locations at the nursing station. Staff attended 30 to 40-minute training, and continued reinforcement was in place to encourage compliance to fall prevention guidelines. The staff worked as a team, and ensured that all patients were properly evaluated for a fall risk. The evaluation process included conducting another survey, and feedback show that the project was a success, and staff’s awareness has increased in the past two months. The conclusion and recommendation are that staff properly identify patients that are at risk of falling during admission, and to continually evaluate patients during their hospital stay until when discharged. There have been zero falls in the last two months. This shows that with proper retraining, and reinforcement, falls could be reduced.

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