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A Hospital Based Practice Paradigm to Improve Patient Outcomes
Advanced practice nurses are well situated to assume leadership roles in improving patient outcomes through the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions that affect large patient populations (Curley & Vitale, 2011). All types of evidence-based interventions, however, are not necessarily appropriate or optimally effective in all circumstances, making the need for ongoing research an essential part of the process (Mateo & Foreman, 2013). Nevertheless, some interventions already have proven efficacy in a wide range of hospital settings, and it just makes good sense to draw on these in formulating new practice paradigms. The purpose of this paper is to describe a fall-prevention hospital based practice paradigm that can improve patient outcomes in virtually all inpatient settings.
Review and Discussion
With a growing percentage of the American population entering their elder years today, it is reasonable to suggest that a greater share of already scarce health care resources will need to be used for age-related illnesses and infirmities in the future. In many cases, inpatient care and aggressive treatment will be needed to help these senior citizens regain their health. One of the major...
In fact, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2018) reports that, “Between 700,000 and 1 million patients fall in hospitals each year” (Butcher, 2017). Although most of the patients who fall in hospitals are not injured seriously in the process, the potential for harm is still significant and patients can even die from falls. An extreme case in point occurred at a Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Oklahoma City. The policy in place at the time required patients to fall three times before receiving a fall warning. In one case, an elderly veteran patient who had already fallen once fell yet again, breaking open his colostomy bag which infected his surgical sites and resulted in his death within 2 days (pers. knowl.). Furthermore, beyond the human costs that are involved, the economic costs that are associated with injury-causing falls in hospitals are significant, with the Joint Commission estimating the costs at more…
According to the Centers for Disease Control, muscle-related problems and a lack of exercise account for about 24% of the falls in subacute facilities. Other causes, which can also be easily addressed within subacute facilities, "include wet floors, poor lighting, incorrect bed height, and improperly fitted or maintained wheelchairs" (Falls in nursing homes, 2010, CDC). These types of environmental hazards are estimated to cause 16% to 27% of falls
Reducing Falls on the Surgical Step Down Unit Introduction The problem of falls in acute care hospitals is one that continues to persist in spite of the existing literature available on this topic (Zhao et al., 2018). Hester, Tsai, Rettiganti and Mitchell (2016) note that inpatient falls account for the largest number of reported incidents in hospitals. One reason for the problem is that hospitals fail to implement proper and effective preventive
Falls THE ISSUE OF ACCIDENTAL FALLS At some point, anyone who had learned how to walk has had the experience of falling down -- it is a universal experience for infants as they gain ambulatory ability. In hospitals, however, the accidental fall is the most reported type of patient safety incident, with elderly patient populations displaying a particular vulnerability (Oliver 2007, p.173). Approximately one-third of adults over the age of sixty-five will
causes for Medicare and Medicaid patients to be readmitted to hospitals within thirty days of a prior discharge. This is a fairly pervasive and major problem and it is one that demands solutions. As part of this capstone, there will be a number of facets and tools used. There will be a problem description that identifies what the problem is and why it is important. There will be a
AbstractFall Prevention Post AnesthesiaPurposeThe project�s goal was to develop a plan for the role of nurses as change agents to improve the prevention of patient falls in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). The aim was to establish baseline knowledge and prior training regarding patient safety and fall prevention according to the post-anesthesia recovery unit protocol and educate staff on implementing strategies to reduce patient falls after surgery.BackgroundPostoperative falls are
Introduction There is a rapid increase in the number of people who are living into older age. This essay will discuss the incidence of fall that is attributed to a lack of physical activity by people who are 65 years and above. With the number of elderly people rising with each passing day, it is estimated that in the next two years around 16 percent of the population will comprise of