National Patient Safety Goals
On
Reduce Your Risk of Falling
Joanna Dela Pena
NR224
Chamberlain College of Nursing

Introduction

Falls are a public health problem worldwide. Hospitalization increases fall risk because of the unfamiliar environment, illnesses, and treatments. Patient falls and fall-related injuries are devastating to patients, clinicians, and the health care system. A single fall may result in a fear of falling and different complications that will reduced mobility, leading to loss of function and greater risk of falls. Older adults are more likely to be injured from a fall. Injurious falls also increase hospital costs and lengths of stay (Bates DW, Aug 1995). Factors affecting fall especially in older adults like environment or health care setting, are rising their numbers simply because of inconvenient structures of facility. Older patient that needs to wake up at night struggling to find their call light for help would literally just go to the bathroom by themselves. Without their full cognitive thinking ability to turn on any light and not able to hold their urine because of many reasons like incontinence, would result to fall accidents. People of any age can also be risk from fall injuries due to many psychological and physiological changes they are into. Changing medications for example could make a person dizzy because the body has not adjusted yet to the change. That person could not be aware of the adverse effect and still would do his/her normal daily activities that will result into a fall injuries. Being unaware of the situation and the environment contributes a lot in minimizing this kind of injuries, that is why The Joint Commission complimentary publish a brochure issued September 28, 2015 regarding preventing fall-related injuries in health care facilities.

Summary
Falls resulting in injury are a frequent patient safety