Translating an Evidence Into Practice
Among the older adults aged 60 years and above, falls have been identified as a leading cause of fatal injuries and non-fatal injuries. In the United States, nearly 50% of hospitalized adult patients face the risks of falls and nearly 80% of the patients who fall suffer from fatal or non-fatal injuries. (CDC, 2010). When patients fall, the issue can lead to negative health effects that include longer hospital stays, elevated patient's costs, and longer recovery times. An average hospital stay can increase by more than 12.3 days, and consequently increase the cost of hospitalization by 61%. In essence, elder population face the risks of severe head or leg injuries after a fall, and the issue can ultimately increase the risk of head trauma and hip fractures. (CDC, 2010).
Numerous organizations have employed different strategies to prevent falls. Current practice includes bed alarms, adequate light, and side rail, call lights, and clutter free environment. While these interventions are important to maintain patient safety, however, these practices are not effective in preventing falls of older adult's patients. Moreover, call lights can be effective in preventing falls, however, overuse of call lights to alert nurses for immediate attention may make some nurses not responding instantly to the call.
A hourly rounding has been identified as a current and proactive practice used to prevent falls among hospitalized patients. Since patient satisfaction is an effective key metric that influences reimbursement and hospital rating, a hourly rounding has become an effective tool that healthcare organizations use to improve patient satisfactions.
The objective of this research is to investigate whether an hourly rounding can be used to reduce call light use, falls and pressure ulcers...
Among hospitalized adult patients (P), what are the impact of hourly rounding among hospitalized patients (I) compared to patients who have not received the hourly rounding attention (C) for patient health satisfaction (O) within 3 months (T)?
Justification of Response
Hourly rounding is defined as a systematic and proactive nursing intervention that healthcare organizations design to meet the needs of hospitalized patients to promote patients safety, satisfaction and quality with a healthcare environment. Since the 1970s, the proactive regular checks of patients has been identified as an effective tool to decrease patients' anxiety. Hick (2015) identifies patient falls as the critical clinical problem with a heath care environment. The author defines falls as an unexpected descent from standing and sitting, which has become a top cause of injuries among the older adults. In 2000, the United States spent more than $19 billion to manage fall injuries, and the costs of managing injuries are expected to reach $54 billion by 2020.
Hicks (2015) describes hourly rounding as a method of checking hospitalized patients regularly to meet patients' needs to reduce patients falls. Hick (2015) carries out an integrated review of the literature, and the findings reveal that hourly rounding is an effective healthcare current practice to reduce falls that ultimately enhances patients' safety.
Ford (2010) supports the argument of the previous author by pointing out that hourly rounding serves as an effective health and proactive…
