Partnering with patients and families in designing visual cues to prevent falls in hospitalized elders.
Prevention of falls in hospitalized elderly is critical to avoid injury and maintain independence. As part of a comprehensive program, nursing staff in a medical telemetry unit partnered with patients and their families to design and implement an educational poster to prevent falls. Ongoing patient/family feedback was used to modify the poster until it was appealing and effective for patients. The effort resulted in a marked decrease in falls on the unit over the pilot period.
Jeske
Lee
L
St. Luke's Medical Center, Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, Wis, USA. lee.jeske@aurora.org
Kolmer
Valerie
V
Muth
Mary
M
Cerns
Stephanie
S
Moldenhaur
Sara
S
Hook
Mary L
ML
D000056:Accident Prevention; D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology; D001296:Audiovisual Aids; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003463:Cues; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D005851:Geriatric Nursing; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010358:Patient Participation / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012308:Risk Management; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013686:Telemetry; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration