Patient Care: Fall Risk Prevention

1 Patient Care: Fall Risk Prevention The risk of instability and falling in elderly persons is more significant than in younger healthy people. This risk is contributed by numerous factors, including age-related disabilities, vision loss, decreased muscular strength, and underlying health conditions, among other factors (Moncada & Mire, 2017). Falls have negative consequences on the health of individuals hence should be prevented at all costs. Some of the negative effects of falling include fractures, muscle strains, brain injuries, dislocation of joints, and bruises, among others (Chen et al. 2017). Fall risk prevention has been categorized as one of the key nursing indicators. The implementation of fall risk prevention strategies helps to improve the quality of care and the safety of patients.

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2 Patient identification and case summary This discussion delves into the fall risk prevention case of an 84-year-old male client, who visited the clinic after experiencing dizziness while standing (CDC, 2017). The client complained that his dizziness had become frequent although he could not identify a definite pattern. The patient, however, denied experiencing syncope, pain and dyspnea accompanying his dizziness. Importantly, the client clarified that he had opted to use a cane since he often felt unsteady while walking (CDC, 2017).

Nurse’s role The nurse’s role in the care of this patient included a comprehensive appraisal of his medical and health history (Callis, 2016). The nurse collected data that would facilitate accurate decision-making. Importantly, the nurse performed a comprehensive physical assessment to identify potential abnormalities. The nurse interviewed the patient to identify his main fall risk factors and finally made recommendations on some potentially effective tactics to prevent a fall.

Patient role in their care The patient was cooperative and actively took part in his care by asking questions regarding underlying health conditions and fall risk prevention. He also provided detailed information concerning his medical history including the increasing fear of falling. He noted that he had been using a walking stick to avoid falling. The patient pointed out that he had been compliant with the medication instructions given by the physician.

Patient care -patient outcome relationship

3 The client noted that he had been advised to use a walker while moving around. The use of a cane greatly improved the safety of the patient. Despite suffering from dizziness and feeling unstable while walking the patient had not experienced a fall.

Environmental impact on the situation The nurse made recommendations on some tactics that could improve patient safety and reduce the risk of falling. These recommendations were focused on improving the environment for the client. For instance, it was recommended that grab bars be installed together with a proper lighting system. The nurse applied the stages of change model to enable the client to adapt to environmental changes. This model involves six stages, including pre-contemplation, action, preparation, contemplation, termination, and maintenance. This model aims to facilitate behavioral change in a person (Gellman & Turner, 2019).

Quality model No quality model was used in the care of the patient. The quality improvement model could have been utilized in this case to establish a formal framework to guide patient care processes. This model emphasizes the use of interventions that hold the promise of improving the outcome of care.

Further Action The patient could have been enrolled in a physical therapy program to improve care outcomes and reduce the risk of adverse effects in the future. In physical therapy programs, the patient can participate in simple exercises to improve muscular strength and stability (Zimmerman et al., 2017).

4 References Callis, N. (2016). Falls Prevention: Identification of predictive fall risk factors. Applied Nursing Research, 29, 53-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2015.05.007 CDC (2017). Case Study Mr Ying. https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/pdf/STEADI-CaseStudy2MrYing-508.pdf Chen, S., Kearns, W., Fozard, J., & Li, M. (2017). Personalized fall risk assessment for longterm care services improvement. In 2017 Annual Reliability and Maintainability Symposium (RAMS) (pp. 1-7). http://doi:10.1109/RAM.2017.7889692.

Gellman, M. D., & Turner, J. R. (2019). Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer Moncada, L., & Mire, L. (2017). Preventing falls in older persons. American family physician, 96(4), 240-247. https://www.aafp.org/afp/2017/0815/p240.html Zimmerman, S., Greene, A., Sloane, P. D., Mitchell, M., Giuliani, C., Nyrop, K., & Walsh, E. (2017). Preventing falls in assisted living: results of a quality improvement pilot study.

Geriatric Nursing, 38(3), 185-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2016.09.003