OPH staff get on the front foot with falls

Staff from right across OPH Ward 5 came together last month in an initiative to help reduce patient falls. Dubbed the Fantastic Five February Falls Fiesta, the initiative was led by Christine Williamson (Clinical Nurse Manager), and saw teams from Pharmacy, Nursing, Physio, OT, and Medical working together to create displays designed to educate and raise awareness around falls.

Falling while in hospital is a serious risk for patients and can result in injury or increased mortality rates. There are many risk factors which have been identified as contributing to in-patient falls and for each of these, strategies can be put in place which mitigate the risk. Some of the most common factors patients can be affected by include:

• Poor mobility and/or balance
• Cognition impairment
• Medications
• Elimination problems
• Foot conditions and/or inadequate footwear
• Previous falls

Su Kitchen is the Clinical Lead and Clinical Nurse Consultant for Falls Prevention across SCGOPHCG and is impressed with the Ward 5 team’s proactive approach to protecting their patients. She said, “Awareness and education around risk factors are so important and will help us to continue the good work we are doing around this issue. We’ve seen a great improvement in our falls stats over the last couple of years and we will keep working at it.”

“This initiative is an excellent example of the kind of teamwork and cooperation it takes between all the disciplines to protect a patient from falling while they are in hospital. Each patient is highly individual and so they need to be assessed and supported for their own very specific needs and risks. When the multidisciplinary treatment team is aware of all the patients’ risk factors, they can then collaborate within the ward and with the patient, family and carers to identify and implement interventions to mitigate the risks,” she said.

Ward 5 selected some of the most common risk factors to address and each team chose a topic and created a display to go up around the ward. The Pharmacy team also created a quiz on medications and the falls risk some can introduce, with RN Aneeb Mathew coming in first and EN Michelle Jurgens the runner up. Throughout the month, Ward 5 staff wore their playful Fantastic 5s Fiesta Falls awareness T-shirts, which were designed and printed by nurses Helen Haydon and Leanne Douglas.

The displays were up throughout February and the first half of March with prizes for the most popular, selected by a People’s Choice vote. Displays covered:

• Exercise and Falls Prevention (physios) 1st place
• FRAMP Assessment (Helen Haydon) 2nd place
• Back to Basics (Leanne Douglas) joint 3rd place
• Freddie Faller and Signage of Falls Project (Helen Haydon & Christine Williamson) joint 3rd place
• Sensor Mats
• Bathroom Safety
• Environmental Risk Factors
• Medication (pharmacist)
• Falls Prevention and Cognition (OTs)
• Continence

Su Kitchen delivers regular education programs and is the Lead for the WA Community of Practice for Falls. She also hosts and delivers a series of monthly educational lectures presented to health professionals across WA, which are now available on video.

Visit the NMHS You Tube channel to view the Falls lecture series (external site).

To be added to the mailing list to receive fall prevention information or if you have any questions, please email scgophcgfallscnc@health.wa.gov.au.