Name
Capella University
FPX6414
Instructor’s Name
October 03, 2024
Learning Theories and Diversit
Abstract
Care delivery is always being upgraded now and then by healthcare practitioners who seek to provide the best results to patients. In this endeavor, patient safety must be given high priority as well as being maintained consistently. Falls are thus the number one cause of accidental death among the senior citizens of the United States of America. Each year, around 2∙8 million elderly people require emergency care mostly because of falls (Young et al., 2020). The conditions that enhance the likelihood of falls are; confusion tough times while walking, and the continuing emergency in need of passing water. In addition, elderly patients admitted to hospitals are at a higher risk of falls and most of these falls result in fatality. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports that 700,000- one million patients have falls each year while in hospital. Epidemiological data show that rates of falls are between 3.5 and 9.5 falls per thousand bed days.
Introduction
Falling incidents are on the rise, especially among the elderly thus are viewed as a rising public health issue. Falls are a substantial problem in society each year approximately 2.8 million adults are treated in emergency departments due to fall-related injuries (Shorey et al., 2021). According to CMS, of the 800.000 hospitalized patients who fall every year in the U.S., between 700.000 and 1.000.000 experience a fall whilst in hospital and both the patients and the healthcare providers continue to face a great deal of pressure to prevent these falls.
These slips contribute to prolonged hospitalization, additional treatment complications, and high medical costs. In addition to the financial repercussions, the cost of human suffering to the patient and the family and the adverse effects on the doctor-patient relationship are enormous. These falls must be prevented to safeguard not only the patients in question but also the overall functionality of hospitals (Shorey et al., 2021). Instruments such as the Schmid scale have therefore proven crucial in evaluating risks that befall a patient enabling healthcare professionals to come up with other factors that are prone to causing falls.
The Schmid tool was adopted as a way of assessing the risk of fallers based on some mobility, cognitive status, need for elimination, past reports of falls, and the use of medications (Liao et al., 2023). The aforementioned risk factors play a significant role in directing healthcare providers to choose strategies that will help reduce fall episodes. These efforts are supported by the more general informatics models that add analysis to the assessment and the outcomes of patient safety and care.
Analyzing the Use of the Informatics Model
The Schmid fall risk scale is one of the most employed when evaluating a patient’s risk of falling within the healthcare setting. Doctors use five assessment areas to measure the potential of patients to experience a fall. The first is mobility disability which divides patients into two groups depending on their ability to move around or not on their own (Shang, 2021). Depending on movement capacity, patients may be categorized as fully mobile, needing assistance, unstable, and immobile. The second category provides the facility to evaluate cognitive ability. Patients are categorized according to their orientation status, fully oriented oriented sometimes or always, or no orientation at all.
The third category is elimination ability, which means how independently a patient can control his/her bladder and bowel (Agustini et al., 2023). This includes being fully independent, having difficulty requiring assistance, to having an incontinent status. The fourth factor analyzes the prior history of falls since studies show that prior falls are indicative of future risk of falls. The patients are categorized by having no history of falls or falls before they were hospitalized.
The last is concerned with the medications that a patient might be using, since some drugs, like antiepileptic, psychotropic, tranquilizers, and hypnotics, possess influences on balance, coordination, and higher psychics (Giroux et al., 2022). Through continuous assessments of the patients in these domains, healthcare providers will be in a position to access those patients who are at a higher risk of falls and come up with risk reduction strategies for the patients. In turn, the Schmid tool assists in creating a more proactive fall prevention positioning the patients in a safer environment as well as the overall improved results.
Literature Review
Hospital falls remain a major problem in healthcare organizations despite the general downward trend in the number of falls reported due to improvements in recognition and risk reduction efforts in the recent past. It can be brought into perspective that patient falls continue to be a major cause of hospital injuries and the implications are well felt by the patient and healthcare facilities (Sukhera et al., 2024). Patients with a fall can end up with long-term disabilities, low quality of life, and in extreme cases death. Healthcare providers are always in one way or another directly affected by fall incidents, in that their patients take longer periods in the hospitals, costs incurred in treatment, and some possible liabilities. It noted that hospitals are under pressure since Medicare and Medicaid no longer included costs for fall-related incidents since 2008 making the need for fall prevention programs even more important to avoid punitive measures.
Essional interviews with clinicians convey that older patients with traumatic injuries as a result of falling are regularly readmitted with the same injuries. This pattern shows the need to maintain follow-up care and to establish methods of fall prevention even after the first dismissal. Studies have found that elderly people continue to record high incidents of fatal and hospitalization cases due to falls in the last decade (Farzandipour et al., 2021). This rising trend indicates the call for improved preventative steps since the aging population is likely to rise with a boosted risk of falls among the elderly. In addition to the above aspects of the fall prevention program, the assessment and modifications included for the patients should also look into social and physical factors that make patients prone to falls such as home modifications.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states clearly that falls are the number one cause of injuries and deaths among those who are 65 years of age and above in the United States (Hirter et al., 2024). Since these falls are mostly preventable, hospitals should consider implementing fall prevention programs targeting clinical and non-clinical predisposing factors.
Model for Change: Reducing Falls through the Schmid Tool
The Schmid fall risk scale when adopted as a model for change in the management of healthcare environments contributes strongly to the reduction of risk factors for falls among the elderly admitted to hospitals. The approach to the change encompasses different processes, where the Schmid tool is implemented in daily clinical work to enhance care delivery.
Assessment and Awareness
The first of them is to create preliminary consciousness among providers of the healthcare system, especially when it comes to elderly patients’ fall risks. This includes conducting orientation and sensitization on the use of the Schmid fall risk scale (Shang, 2021). The tool should be implemented to teach nurses and other healthcare staff patient fall risk assessment, the presence of which indicates possible mobility problems, impaired cognitive function, troubles with elimination, history of falling, and the use of certain medications. Integration of the assessment into daily processes can help clinicians determine which clients are most prone to fall and the reason why.
Personalized Risk Assessment
After training the staff, the use of the Schmid tool becomes the next step followed by ensuring that it is applied in care plans for the patients. Before and after a patient is admitted to the hospital, and throughout their stay, they have to be evaluated for any changes in their risk factors (Shorey et al., 2021). Doing so allows clinicians to individualize the care of high-risk patients and create plans regarding mobility devices and issues with constipation, the necessity of regular bathroom visits, and changes made to medications that affect balance and cognition.
Collaborative Team-Based Interventions
The change model suggests that change must be collaborative and should involve the engagement of staff from each department. Such patients require the collaboration of physicians, nurses, physical therapists, and pharmacists to develop a strong fall prevention protocol (Young et al., 2020). For instance, the Schmid scale can be used by nurses to continually evaluate the risk of falls for a patient, physical therapists focus on patient mobility, or pharmacists carefully assess the patient’s medications that lead to falls. In the current study, it was evident that interdisciplinary collaboration among the team of caregivers is key to strategy in each sector effectively to prevent fall-related occurrences.
Use of Technology and Data
The change to the model includes health informatics as a tool to ensure the doctor gathers accurate information (Sukhera et al., 2024). Through the EHR and informatics models, the Schmid tool assessment data can be obtained in real-time for the healthcare providers as to review the trends and the results. This user-oriented approach enables one to analyze the efficiency of the interventions aimed at reducing the number of falls and identify the gaps.
Continuous Monitoring and Improvement
The last stage of the change model is another cycle that shows continuity and evaluation. Patient outcomes should also be assessed in the course of the period to test the effectiveness of the identified interventions (Sukhera et al., 2024). Thus, the auditing of fall incidents regularly accompanied by the constant receive of staff feedback can bring out the existing deficiencies in the process. Mores can then be made to fine-tune the usage of the Schmid tool while maintaining the customers’ needs to prevent falls.
NURS FPX 6414 Assessment 1 Conclusion
In conclusion, the findings suggest that defining and initiating a more supervised and structured fall prevention program, like the Schmid tool, is central to minimizing the number of falls in elderly patients admitted to ANY hospital (Agustini et al., 2023). The above tools enable caregivers to assess various facets of patients and develop a mechanical means of rating patients’ risk factors for falls by considering aspects such as mobility, cognitive functioning, and medication. Furthermore, the informatics models presented demonstrate how the collected data can be used to identify the weaknesses of the interventions and how patient safety can be maintained. By leveraging tools like the Schmid scale, alongside advanced informatics models, hospitals can significantly reduce fall-related incidents and enhance overall patient outcomes.
NURS FPX 6414 Assessment 1 References
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