Do Sitters Prevent Falls?: A Review of the Literature
Authors: Lang Carrie E. 
Published: August 2014

How to Obtain Contact Hours by Reading This Article

Instructions

1.2
contact hours will be awarded by Villanova University College of Nursing upon successful completion of this activity. A contact hour is a unit of measurement that denotes 60 minutes of an organized learning activity. This is a learner-based activity. Villanova University College of Nursing does not require submission of your answers to the quiz. A contact hour certificate will be awarded once you register, pay the registration fee, and complete the evaluation form online at
https://villanova.gosignmeup.com/dev_students.asp?action=browse&main=Nursing+Journals&misc=564
. To obtain contact hours you must:

1.
Read the article, “Do Sitters Prevent Falls? A Review of the Literature” found on pages 24–33, carefully noting any tables and other illustrative materials that are included to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the content. Be sure to keep track of the amount of time (number of minutes) you spend reading the article and completing the quiz.

2.
Read and answer each question on the quiz. After completing all of the questions, compare your answers to those provided within this issue. If you have incorrect answers, return to the article for further study.

3.
Go to the Villanova website listed above to register for contact hour credit. You will be asked to provide your name; contact information; and a VISA, MasterCard, or Discover card number for payment of the $20.00 fee. Once you complete the online evaluation, a certificate will be automatically generated.

This activity is valid for continuing education credit until April 30, 2016.

Contact Hours
This activity is co-provided by Villanova University College of Nursing and SLACK Incorporated.
Villanova University College of Nursing is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Activity Objectives

1.
Describe the correlation between sitter use and fall prevention.

2.
Review ways that sitters can affect the workflow of nursing care with patient and family satisfaction.

Disclosure Statement
Neither the planners nor the author have any conflicts of interest to disclose.

Preventing falls is a primary nursing concern, especially among older adult patients. Employing a sitter is a common but costly intervention. This article is a comprehensive review of the literature on sitter use and its effect on fall rates in acute care. The search was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection and included articles published between 1995 and 2013. The articles included reported data on studies increasing or decreasing sitter use. Sitter reduction studies showed no increase in fall rates; studies implementing sitters to reduce falls showed conflicting results. Implications include the impact to staffing and nursing practice that results from sitter use, the need for staff education programs, how sitter use can affect patient satisfaction, and the need for additional, more robust research on this topic to determine whether sitter use is evidence-based practice. [
Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 40
(5), 24–33.]