Nursing Burning Clinical Question

There are some problems that occur in nursing practices, however, most of these adversities can be eliminated by applying proper nursing practices. Further, there are studies which defined the proper nursing levels and practices (Beckmann et al., 1998). One of the most common problems encountered in nursing practices is the large number of patient fall incidences especially to older patients. 

Background

The problem of patient fall incidences is related to the large number of vulnerable patients especially those who aged 65 years old and above. According to Dr. Mattison (2019), 40% of hospital patients are aged 65 years old and above. This number of patients is almost half of the hospital population. Old patients are more prone to fall from bed which resulted to large number of this incident. To prevent the occurrence of patient fall accidents, nurses should do regular rounding with minimum time interval and provide alternative methods instead of going out from bed. 

Significance

The regular rounding with minimal interval of time and providing alternative methods to minimize the circumstances when patients need to go out from bed are some of the most achievable solution to prevent fall incidences. Based on a study, regular nursing rounds has positive impacts to patients such as improving patient-nurse interaction, decreasing number of bed falls, decreasing hospitalization duration and increasing patient’s satisfaction (Negarandeh et.al, 2014). Also, it can help if nurses will provide alternative methods to lessen the situations when client needs to go out from bed. One example is to provide portable pee toilets so that patient will no longer need to go to bathroom to pee. These two methods may help to lessen the number of patient fall incidences and answer our PICOT question.  

Picot Question. Our PICOT question is “Given that almost half of the hospital population consists of vulnerable patient aged 65 years old above and Long Term Acute Care (LTAC) in-patients above 50 years. How can we minimize or lessen the incidences of patient fall?” 

Purpose Statement. This study is written to identify the methods or ways that can be used to decrease the number of incidences related to bed fall. There are few factors that need to be regarded such as organizational structure, equipments and number of nurses to perform rounds versus the patient that they will assist.

Clinical Burning Question. The clinical burning question of this topic is “How long is the most effective time interval of nursing rounds to prevent the occurrence of patient fall incidences especially to those who are LTAC patients?” 

Conclusion

The large number of patient fall incidences can be lessen by frequent nursing rounds and limiting the situation that patients need to go out from bed. There are studies that show the positive impact of regular/ frequent nursing rounds which includes the decrease of number of fall incidences. Also, limiting situation that patients need to go out from bed by giving alternative method can help to prevent these cases.

Reference

Beckmann, U., Baldwin, I., Durie, M., Morrison, A., & Shaw, L. (1998). Problems associated with nursing staff shortage: an analysis of the first 3600 incident reports submitted to the Australian Incident Monitoring Study (AIMS-ICU). Anaesthesia and intensive care, 26(4), 396-400.

Mattison, M. (n.d.). Hospital management of older adults. Retrieved from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/hospital-management-of-older-adults. 

Negarandeh, R., Bahabadi, A.H., & Mamaghani, J.A. (2014). Impact of Regular Nursing Rounds on Patient Satisfaction with Nursing Care. Asian Nursing Research,  282-285. DOI: 10.1016/j.anr.2014.10.005