The effectiveness of newborn safety information and acknowledgement in preventing inpatient newborn falls

Abstract

<p>Newborn falls can occur in the immediate postpartum period. The purpose of this capstone project was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Newborn Safety Information and Acknowledgement tool in impacting inpatient newborn falls in the postpartum setting. The literature indicated health care settings that used a safety contract in their newborn fall prevention programs had success in decreasing or eliminating in-hospital newborn falls. A mixed methods design, Evidence-based Practice (EBP), Quantitative Descriptive and Qualitative Case Study designs were utilized to address three outcomes. The primary target population was postpartum newborn fall case events and postpartum nursing staff documentation on the use of the Newborn Safety Information and Acknowledgement tool at a Mid-Western Women&rsquo;s Hospital. A convenience sample of all newborn fall events and charts for retrospective review were utilized. Data revealed no newborn falls occurred during the 3 months after implementation of the Newborn Safety Information and Acknowledgement tool. However, an examination of the newborn fall case events suggested the risk factors were mothers who breastfeed, or breast and bottle feed and delivery by cesarean section. Additionally, newborn falls were most likely to occur during the early morning hours between 1-7am, after 24 hours from delivery time, and within 6 hours of receiving sedating medication. Other data revealed, that the Newborn Safety Information and Acknowledgement tool was somewhat being used as intended. This study reinforced that the Newborn Safety Information and Acknowledgement tool can aide in communication between parents of newborns and postpartum nursing staff to prevent falls and improve the safety of newborns in the inpatient setting.</p>