Patient falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries among Americans, particularly of the old age (Anderson, Dolansky, Damato, & Jones, 2015) . These incidents are also expensive for healthcare institutions, especially for the fact that they are financially obligated to attend to inpatient falls and injuries. To address a recent rise in falls that lead to injuries, the place of the nurses within the facilities cannot be underestimated (Quigley, 2016). There is a need to determine any trends or usual tendencies that lead to injuries, even besides the falls, and implement new practices and approaches that could help in alleviating the problem of patient injuries.
History and Statistics
Over the last two decades, gerontology researchers have done much research work to work out the problem of falls and injuries in communities. Nonetheless, a permanent solution for successful interventions is not yet found in the communities. Through much research on enormous fall-prevention programs and fall-related-injuries, there is a possible solution to be dealt with across care domain. According to Ahmad, Al-Rimawi, Masadeh, and Atoum (2015), generalized healthcare center fall statistics show that the overall risk of a patient to fall in the health care setting is about 1.9 to 3 percent of all hospitalizations. In the United States, for instance, about 37 million admissions are done each year resulting from falls that have caused injuries in hospitals (Quigley, 2016). Injuries are projected to happen in about 6 to 44 percent of serious inpatient falls. In the long-standing care setting, 29 to 54 percent of stakeholders within the facility are reported to fall and be injured in their entire stay. The rise in injury rates is probably because long-term care residents are more susceptible than people who are within their community setup. These statistics of prevalent cases of injury have prompted a study to investigate how to effectively create fall and injury prevention programs and outreaches.
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Significance to Health Issues
Nurse interventions are very critical in communities and to vulnerable people. This investigation is significant as causes of injuries such as fall can be prevented by employing the appropriate strategies ( Ahmad et al., 2015) . The idea is to reduce the fall rates and ultimately the injury cases that often lead to serious situations for the patients. High-risk patients are often identified in advance and secluded to prevent occasions of falls in them. Healthcare institutions are able to deliver proper health care services to the patients, even with the help of technology (Quigley, 2016). For instance, the utilization of a movement detection patch to alert the practitioners when the elderly permanent residents are doing rounds. Thus, clinicians are able to offer proper services to their clients for increased positive outcomes.
Role of the Nurse
Nurses are playing a significant role in preventing injuries among patients. They are much informed on the magnitude and influence of injuries on those that are vulnerable or the victims of injuries themselves. Nurses are also recognized in initiating and developing prevention approaches that will reduce the number and acuteness of these injuries (Ahmad et al., 2015). If the injuries are not treated or managed well and in time, they may even reach stages that they cause deaths on the victims (Anderson et al., 2016). Nurses are strong advocates of eliminating risks of injuries or any unsafe products within the healthcare facilities to ensure safety throughout.
Relevance to Nursing Practice
Having the knowledge and professional influence on the prevention and management of injuries within the healthcare facilities is very significant. Nurses need to continue developing their professional skills influenced by utilizing a multifaceted approach to injury prevention (Anderson et al., 2016). Therefore, the healthcare professionals and stakeholders from the community, as well as policymakers, bring a lot of relevance to the medical field as they commit to eliminating cases of injuries. More researchers and regulatory agencies in the field become motivated to do more research on injury prevention, which is relevant to the nursing practice.
Conclusion
The rising cases and trends on injuries caused by falls or other factors should spark new approaches and prevention strategies that would reduce the number of victims. Nurses are instrumental in helping to initiate and implement prevention strategies that bring down the number and seriousness of these injuries. There should be a strong campaign to eliminate any risk factors or unsafe products within the healthcare facilities so that safety is guaranteed. More research needs to be done to determine proper prevention plans to injuries that will be relevant to nursing practice as a whole.
References
Ahmad, M., Al-Rimawi, R., Masadeh, A., & Atoum, M. (2015). Workplace violence by patients and their families against nurses: Literature review. International Journal of Nursing and Health Science , 2 (4), 46-55.
Anderson, C., Dolansky, M., Damato, E. G., & Jones, K. R. (2015). Predictors of serious fall injury in hospitalized patients. Clinical nursing research , 24 (3), 269-283.
Quigley, P. A. (2016). Evidence levels: Applied to select fall and fall injury prevention practices. Rehabilitation Nursing , 41 (1), 5-15.
