Heterogeneity between studies indicates that the Morse Falls Scale and STRATIFY may still be useful in particular setting s , but that widespread adoption of either is unlikely to generate benefits significantly greater than that of nursing staff clinical judgment
INTRODUCTION Fall risk screening tools are frequently used as a part of falls prevention programs in hospitals .
Design -related bias in evaluations of tool predictive accuracy could lead to overoptimistic results , which would then contribute to program failure in practice .
Use of initial risk assessment and recording as the main nursing intervention in identifying risk of falls.
The consequences of falls among hospital patients are a great problem , for the patient , the family and society , and cost billions of dollars . In Sweden , almost one-third of all hip fractures occur in the hospital population . Despite this , very few prevention strategies have been developed and tested . In this study , a risk assessment and recording programme in relation to the risk of falling among patients in a geriatric department at a Swedish hospital was implemented . The records of all patients admitted to a geriatric unit during one year , and a stratified r and om sample of patient records , constituting the control group from the year before , were review ed . No recording of assessment s regarding the patients ' risk of falling , and no preventive nursing interventions , were found in the records of the control group . The study group , however , increased the recording of risk assessment to 96 % . Only implemented nursing interventions were found in the patients ' records , despite the fact that Swedish law makes it obligatory for the registered nurse to record both the planning and implementation of nursing care . In the study group there were explicit descriptions of problems of concern for nursing regarding the patients ' risk of falling in less than one-third of the records , the nursing care plans were rare , and the evaluations were not satisfactory . Nursing interventions consisted mostly of information or education , promotion of patient participation , and structuring of the environment . There was no agreement on any st and ard-care plan . Recording of falls was found more often in the study group than in the control group ( probably due to more careful recording ) , but the proportion of injuries in relation to falls was higher in the control group . The results of this study may be used as a baseline for developing a nursing strategy and documentation relating to falls
Heterogeneity between studies indicates that the Morse Falls Scale and STRATIFY may still be useful in particular setting s , but that widespread adoption of either is unlikely to generate benefits significantly greater than that of nursing staff clinical judgment
INTRODUCTION Fall risk screening tools are frequently used as a part of falls prevention programs in hospitals .
Design -related bias in evaluations of tool predictive accuracy could lead to overoptimistic results , which would then contribute to program failure in practice .