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 Swede n, 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 t he risk of falling among patients in a geriatric department at a Swedish ho spital was implemented. The records of all patients admitted to a geriatric unit during one year, and a stratified random sample of patient records, c onstituting the control group from the year before, were reviewed. No recor ding of assessments regarding the patients' risk of falling, and no prevent ive 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' record s, despite the fact that Swedish law makes it obligatory for the registered nurse to record both the planning and implementation of nursing care. In t he study group there were explicit descriptions of problems of concern for nursing regarding the patients' risk of falling in less than one-third of t he records, the nursing care plans were rare, and the evaluations were not satisfactory. Nursing interventions consisted mostly of information or educ ation, promotion of patient participation, and structuring of the environme nt. There was no agreement on any standard-care plan. Recording of falls wa s found more often in the study group than in the control group (probably d ue to more careful recording), but the proportion of injuries in relation t o falls was higher in the control group. The results of this study mag. be used as a baseline far developing a nursing strategy and documentation rela ting to falls.