title: Decreasing Falls With Injury Rates: Development of a Support Staff Falls Advocate Program.
abstract: Falls with injury are a persistent patient safety challenge in the acute care setting. This article describes the creation and implementation of a Certified Falls Prevention Advocate (CFPA) program on a medical-surgical unit. The program created standardization of nursing support staff involvement in falls prevention and engaged them as members of the interdisciplinary team. The CFPA program was an important element in the unit's improvement in falls with injury rates. The mean falls with injury rate decreased from 1.115 to 0.178 per 1000 patient-days over a 1-year period.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing Professional Practice (Mss Reich, Farrell, and Maloney), Department of Nursing Administration (Drs Johnson and Drayton), Penn Medicine-Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Jessie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.forename: Courtney
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maloney
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Drayton
authors.forename: Tonya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D010414:Pennsylvania; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires