Elderly Adults A National Health Crisis Concern

Falls among inpatient elderly adults has become a national health crisis concern, leading cause of hospital injuries, and prolonged length of hospital stays (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2012). Every year, there are approximately 700,000 to 1,000,000 hospitalized falls in hospitals, (Cox, Thomas-Hawkins, Pajarillo, DeGennaro, Cadmus, Martinez, 2014). Cangany, Back, Hamilton-Kelly, Altman, and Lacey (2015) emphasize inpatient falls are the second leading cause of death in hospital settings. The indirect costs related to inpatient fall for a hospital is approximate $13,806 not including malpractice obligations and staff injuries (Simpson, Rosenthal, Cumbler, Likosky, 2013). Introduction: The description of a fall is†¦show more content†¦Hence, a greater financial load is placed on hospitals (Cox, et al., 2014). Acute care nurses have a difficult time providing direct patient care, often because of contradictory goals and policies (Oliver, Connelly, Victor, Shaw, Whitehead, Genc, Vanoli, Martin, Gosney, 2007). Aside from maintaining patient safety during hospitalization, nurses need to address the problem, which prompted the patient’s admission. Once the problem is addressed, the nurse can support or help return the patient to an optimal state of physical and mental health (Chang, Morton, Rubenstein, Mojica, Maglione, Suttorp, Shekelle, 2004). Nurses must develop fall promotion practices that supersede the universal fall standards most hospitals utilize (Quigley White, 2015). Nursing leadership that encourage fall promotion practices and further education of staff nurses intertwined with an interdisciplinary approach can impact the h ospital’s fall reduction (Quigley White, 2015). Policy proposed: The proposed policy created by Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) in Colton, California is utilized for direct patient care providers and staff nurses. The policy was based on standard fall guidelines for patients identified as a fall risk upon initial history assessment. Presently, there is not an educational component in place for fall prevention of inpatients. The