SUMMARY:
Implementation of an Evidence-Based Patient Safety Team to Prevent Falls in Patient Falls Medical Units
Falls cause death and harm for people of all ages, but risks of falls raises noticeably with age. Falls have numerous shortcomings to both the facilities as well as the patients; for example, emotional repercussions for patients and the facilities having to incur more operating cost as a result of unanticipated surgeries.
The increasing numbers of falls has led to the creation of a Patient Safety Team. Literature review has it that the Patient Safety Team program is working magically- it has reduced the fall rate, drastically, from 1.9 to 0.6 falls for each 1,000 taken bed days (task carried out by EBP TeamSTEPPS). The trend of falls continues to decline as a result of the presence of the Patient Safety Team.
The Evidence-Based Patient Safety Team involvement has condensed the likelihood of patient injury as well as a remarkable clinical payment to falls prevention. Literature review has it that before the project was started; the clinical staff had insufficient knowledge on how the ecological risk factors added to inpatient falls. Insufficient knowledge on environmental risk factors was viewed as one of the reason leading to an increase in fall rate, according to Safety Patient Team. The EBP TeamSTEPPS, came up with a simple structured approach that would aid clinical nursing staff in identifying factors that enhanced the occurrences of falls.
In order to achieve this objective, decreasing the fall rate, the Patient Safety Team has successfully integrated falls deterrence strategies; for example, educating the staff on the subject of the fall-injury evaluation device, the use of alarm gadgets, the importance of hourly rounding, presenting toileting regularly, as well as training both the staff and the patients about the side effects of medications. It is, also, important to note that the clinical nurses play a vital role in the facilities and, as result of this reason; they should not be left out when establishing an efficient falls prevention team. In every nursing unit, one of the staff should be incorporated in the team, so as to educate his or her coworkers on all happening growth and the newest preventions strategies (Wagner, 2013).
In order to carry out the project, it is depicted that forty nine individuals participated in the Perfect Storm Simulation. The project had to be conducted before the individuals got the training and after the training, so as to assess its effectiveness. The participants conducted a bedside cluster, whereby, they acknowledged the numerous falls risk, and updated the white board. After successfully completing the survey, the responses were dissimilar as depicted by both surveys. The first survey reflected minimal use of teamwork, whereas, the second survey had hopeful results towards the prevention of falls.
The project carried out by EBP teamSTEPPS depicts the significance of teamwork as well as situational awareness when it comes to preventing falls and improving patient protection. The terrific results of its project confirm its positive impact on patient wellbeing. The Patient Safety Team is required to carry out the following roles; complete the post-fall evaluation checklist, make the best advice based on facts, continuous response to cases of falls, and continuous involvement in training to cases related to falls and other patient safety matters. Literature review has it that not all inpatient falls can be avoided, but the Patient Safety Team can establish a positive environment by mounting reciprocated support, increasing situational evaluation, promoting open communication, giving leading edge employees teaching and encouraging participation of leaders (Wagner, 2013).
References
Boltz, M., Cpezuti, E., Wagner, L., Rosenberg, M.C., & Secic, M. (2013).Patient safety in medical-surgical units: Can nurse certification make a difference? MEDSURG Nursing, 22(1), 26-37.
