Mentor/s
Dr. Eileen T. Yost
Participation Type
Poster
Abstract
Within the Emergency Department each year, there is a pattern of falls which often happen without warning. It is estimated that 700,000-1 million patient suffer from a fall each year. With a fast past and changing environment it is easy for assessments, such as fall risk, to slip through the cracks when in the Emergency Department. There is also a different experience for the patient and the way the receive care. In order to address this problem, research was done to look at the effect of falls on both the patient and the hospital. Each time a patient falls, it increases their length of stay at the hospital. This both increases hospital costs and hurts the patient’s recovery. It was found that often times increase in patient movement to different locations, multiple drugs and an unfamiliar environment create an atmosphere with increased fall risk. Preventing falls is something that should constantly be happening in the Emergency Department. It starts with the nurses and education on falls. Making sure that each person who has contact with patients knows how to help patient and prevent accidents. From here, at each point in a patient’s treatment there are interventions in place to prevent falls. By assessing these interventions and their effectiveness, it was possible to then create a display to reaffirm information related to falls.
College and Major available
Nursing BSN
Location
University Commons
Start Day/Time
4-21-2017 1:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-21-2017 3:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Fall Prevention in the Greenwich Hospital Emergency Department
University Commons
Within the Emergency Department each year, there is a pattern of falls which often happen without warning. It is estimated that 700,000-1 million patient suffer from a fall each year. With a fast past and changing environment it is easy for assessments, such as fall risk, to slip through the cracks when in the Emergency Department. There is also a different experience for the patient and the way the receive care. In order to address this problem, research was done to look at the effect of falls on both the patient and the hospital. Each time a patient falls, it increases their length of stay at the hospital. This both increases hospital costs and hurts the patient’s recovery. It was found that often times increase in patient movement to different locations, multiple drugs and an unfamiliar environment create an atmosphere with increased fall risk. Preventing falls is something that should constantly be happening in the Emergency Department. It starts with the nurses and education on falls. Making sure that each person who has contact with patients knows how to help patient and prevent accidents. From here, at each point in a patient’s treatment there are interventions in place to prevent falls. By assessing these interventions and their effectiveness, it was possible to then create a display to reaffirm information related to falls.
Students' Information
Megan Kurten is a student in the Thomas More Honors Program.