Change to nurse break times leads to zero patient falls
Posted 19 June 2024 - 13:25
Nursing team eliminated falls with injury through commitment to enhanced bay nursing, changes to break times, improved training and risk awareness
A nursing team managed to eliminate almost all falls on their ward for a year after changing staff break times and rolling out ‘bay-nursing.’
Staff on the Eliot ward at the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust have recorded zero falls with injury in the 12 months since a falls prevention project was introduced where nurses ‘tag-team’ patients.
Enhanced bay nursing was part of the ward’s falls prevention strategy
The team also changed night-time break schedules, introducing ‘spilt-breaks’ of 15 or 30 minutes to ensure that breaks were not overlapping and enough colleagues were on the ward at all times.
The new measures came after several older patients with frailty and dementia sustained injuries following falls in the wards in 2021 and 2022.
Ward sister Vicki Burgess said: ‘We’re so pleased that the hard work of our falls improvement project has translated into a massive reduction in falls on the ward over the past year.
‘Quite a lot of falls tend to happen at night, so we changed the structure of our colleagues’ break times, and we also undertook an education programme to reinforce the importance of someone being in the bay at all times.
‘One of the ways that we’ve achieved this was by extending our ‘bay nursing’, where we always have at least one healthcare assistant or nurse with a bay of patients at one time – day or night.
Break times were adjusted to ensure bays were attended at all times
'Bay nursing is now very much business as usual on the ward. It’s a tag team approach and it means we’re able to spot a patient who looks unsteady on their feet, so we can give them the support they need to get about on the ward.’
As well as these measures, the team also carried out group training days with consultants about medications that may increase the risk of falls.
Staff also highlight patients at risk of a fall in their daily safety briefing in the morning handover.
Implementing best practice and strong teamwork
Alongside celebrating zero falls with injury over 12 months, the team also reduced the number of falls without injury from about 20 to under five.
Staff nurse Mel Smith added: ‘It’s natural for nurses to feel guilty if a patient under our care has a fall, but if we can do everything we can to prevent this from happening then we are doing our best for patients.
‘Now, even if both nurses in the bay need to go somewhere, they’ll tell the doctor, physiotherapist or another colleague, so they can provide cover for a short time – we’re all part of the team.’
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