Falls Prevention at the Bedside

Course Overview

This Course will look at fall risk screening and assessment, why identifying appropriate fall risk interventions is important, and what we as healthcare professionals need to be aware of to provide best practice falls prevention at the bedside.

Topics

• Why recognise risk at the bedside?
• What are personal and environmental falls risk factors?
• How to identify risk factors and implement appropriate interventions
• Caring for your patient after a fall

Need

Falls pose a serious threat to patient safety. Accidental falls are among the most common incidents reported in hospitals. Growing evidence indicates that falls occurring in the hospital can be reduced with planning and intervention techniques, however, there is limited research that has been published on fall reduction strategies written by staff nurses.

Additionally, research has shown that when interventions are developed in an interprofessional manner, they can reduce falls by 20–30%.

Nurses are well-positioned to drive organisational change to prevent falls through a team approach to planning, implementing and evaluating a falls prevention program

Purpose

The purpose of this Course is to enhance knowledge and skills in relation to simple and effective screening and assessment processes that can be used at the bedside to prevent falls and harm from falls.

Learning Outcomes

• Apply your understanding of best practice falls prevention to be able to identify why screening and assessment is required
• Use enhanced knowledge of risk factors for falling to identify patients who require screening and assessment
• Identify patients at high risk of injury should they fall to ensure appropriate interventions are in place to mitigate risk

Target Audience

This Course is most relevant to registered nurses and other health professionals working in inpatient wards of hospitals and residential aged care facilities.

Disclosure

No conflict of interest exists for anyone in the position to control content for this activity. Wherever possible, generic or non-proprietary names of medications or products have been used.

Educator

Diana Clayton

Diana Clayton is a clinical nurse consultant who works for Peninsula Health in the falls prevention service. She initially set up the inpatient falls prevention program and currently oversees the program in the subacute and residential care settings. She has been in her current role for 13 years and has presented at a number of conferences over that time. She is a passionate advocate for falls prevention across the whole health spectrum. See Educator Profile