Features
How to prevent inpatient falls: start by refusing to accept they’re inevitable
Falls should be seen as shocking, rather than normal hospital events
Nurses used reflection and after-action review to identify the small changes they could make to reduce risk and avoid normalisation of falls among inpatients
- There are 250,000 falls each year in England’s hospitals, most among people over 65 and many of which result in serious injury or death
- One trust’s project shows how taking a proactive approach, rather than reacting after a fall, can enable nursing staff to reduce falls incidence
- How team-wide involvement in ‘after-action reviews’ and creative solutions helped the trust reduce falls in hospital by 46% over ten years