Patient falls, especially among the geriatric population, are a critical patient safety concern that requires facilities and providers to address because of their adverse effects on patients and the healthcare system. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024) asserts that one in every four older persons falls at least once every year with less than half reporting the incidents to their healthcare providers. Hourly purposeful rounding is an evidence-based practice (EBP) intervention that can reduce patient falls among the geriatric population if implemented in healthcare settings dealing with the population. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation plan based on the formulated PICOT question to address the identified issue of patient falls in elderly patients.
The identified issue involves patient falls among the geriatric population with over 1 million fall-related hospitalizations happening every year and leading to adverse effects. Falls are a patient safety concern as they lead to injuries like head fractures, increased cost of care, and longer stays in hospitals with patients susceptible to comorbidities (Roberts et al., 2020). As such, nurses need to implement evidence-based interventions to reduce and prevent the increasing prevalence of falls among elderly adults in their practice settings.
The proposed solution entails implementing hourly purposeful rounding in the facility to reduce and prevent the occurrence of falls. The assessment of the practicum site and the evaluation of existing literature support the implementation of purposeful rounding because of its benefits to patients and healthcare providers. The selected intervention will involve a consideration of sociocultural and linguistic aspects through effective communication to enhance the safety of the target population. Elderly individuals are susceptible to falls because of the fragility of their bodies and the use of medications due to age-associated conditions like dementia and schizophrenia. In their study, Gliner et al. (2022) note that hourly rounding by nurses in acute settings leads to better patient experience and outcomes since nurses can notice patients struggling to move; which increases their susceptibility to falls.
Khawaja et al. (2023) observe that hourly rounding ensures that healthcare providers like nurses have sufficient data on patient progress and closely monitor every patient to reduce the possibility of falling. Again, Anu (2021) shows that rounding improves patient safety by reducing falls within the facility. Studies by Leamy et al. (2023) Roberts et al. (2020) and Allari et al. (2020) demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed intervention as it helps reduce falls and improve overall patient safety. Further, the studies are categorical that effective rounding ensures providers work in collaborative teams to attain quality outcomes. Di Massimo et al. (2022), Ryan et al. (2022), Sims et al. (2020), and Rasmussen et al. (2022) all agree that intentional hourly rounding by nurses plays a significant role in reducing falls and improving patient care outcomes. Therefore, the proposed solution will lead to a better patient experience and a lower rate of falls by 40% within three months.
Implementing the proposed solution in the practicum site will entail certain steps to achieve the intended objectives.
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