Fall prevention in older adults who reside in nursing homes

Abstract

<p>Falls among older adults who reside in the nursing home setting are a major problem in the United States (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015).&nbsp; The site of this project was a nursing home located in a small town in New Hampshire.&nbsp; This home had a problem with the number of falls that occurred on a monthly basis. &nbsp;The rate of falls on average was two falls per month. &nbsp;This project sought to reduce the number of falls to zero over the course of three months. &nbsp;A fall prevention program using evidence base interventions was developed to reach this objective.</p> <p>The interventions included staff education, medication reviews, an exercise program and hourly rounding. However, the fall rate at the completion of this project increased to four falls per month. &nbsp;This increase can be attributed to the lack of staff <em><span style="font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif;">buy in</span></em> to the program and insufficient staffing numbers. &nbsp;&nbsp;Even though the results demonstrated an increase in the rate of falls it is important to note that there was only one fall related injury during this time. The remainder of falls did not result in injury.</p>