How can we add fall prevention to an already challenged nursing staff?
All nurses care about the prevention of falls, no matter how busy they are. Professional practice models that retain staff have characteristics of shared decision making, research-based practice, innovation, and measurement of patient outcomes. Fall prevention can be incorporated into a professional practice model, and the assessment adds less than 1 to 2 minutes of nursing time. What is more important than preventing a fall, a fracture, a head injury, or loss of life? The greater challenge is to identify what is wasting nursing time in indirect care or “hunting and gathering” (Hendrich, 2004; Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses. Institute of Medicine). Nurses must be returned to direct care and have time for clinical interventions that make a difference in patient outcomes. Fall prevention programs work best when they are incorporated into existing clinical practice committees with direct caregivers who own the process, and who have open access to fall d
