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How to prevent falls in nursing home patients

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Introduction

A patient fall is a descent to the floor that is unplanned which may cause injury to the patient and occurs in a nursing unit (Minor, 2009). Bouldin et al. (2013) identify patient falls as a threat to the safety of patients. Falls in nursing units are classified in levels in a continuum as death, major, moderate, minor and none (Minor, 2009). The Center for Medicaid and Medicare services in 2008 introduced a policy for compensating patients as a way of reducing falls although this has had little impact among nursing home patients (Sand, Owen, & Amin, 2012). This paper makes use DIKW continuum to find out how a nurse can prevent falls among nursing home patients

Moen & Maeland Knudsen (2013) define Nursing informatics as the combined use of nursing science, information science, and computer science to aid nurses in the processing and managing of information, nursing data and knowledge in the delivery of care and practice of nursing. Transformation of the health sectors has resulted from the changes in and advancement of technology. The transformation in information technology has affected how healthcare practitioners practice. Nurses refer to the transformation in information technology in their sector as nursing informatics which entails an information system, support system, and decision making system.

DIKW model

By making use of nursing informatics, nurses in their practice settings are not only able to organize data, but also apply in the process of delivering healthcare services. Nurses also make use of information, wisdom, and knowledge in providing intervention measures and finding solutions to the problems clients encounter in their day to day lives. Figure 6.1 shows how nurses make use of data in a continuum from data, information, knowledge, and wisdom in their daily practice.

From the lower end of the continuum, a nurse moves from making use of data to making use of information. The lowest level involves collecting, naming and organizing data. A nurse at this level is required to gather data and have a detailed organized record of the patient or context. He or she is then required to move to the information level where the data collected is organized and interpreted. By organizing data, the nurse is able to manage and interpret the data.

The knowledge and wisdom levels are on the higher end of the continuum. Interpreting data is a common attribute as a nurse move from the information to the knowledge level. Interpreting, integrating and understanding information is a key feature of the knowledge level. A nurse at the knowledge level is able to understand the interconnections and relationships between the information. Abnormalities and patterns are thus identified at this level. Beyond integrating knowledge, the wisdom levels involve the application of knowledge in the provision of care.

Data to information

Getting data for the research question entailed making use of the internet and the Walden University Library. It also entailed making use of the OVID and CINAHL nursing journal databases with the Keywords “nursing home.” The Ovid database generated 24 article titles. I picked on and chose to read the titles that relate to my topic. This level then entailed creating a table where articles with related information are classified on the causes of and solutions that they recommend towards preventing fall in nursing homes and ensuring their proper management. The abstract of the articles influenced the classification of the article in terms of topics in the process of data extraction. Then, reading of the full articles was necessary before extracting information from the article that is necessary towards interpreting the direction and thinking of the scholars therein. Data stored in electronic health records was necessary for understanding the prevalence of falls among nursing home patients.

Information to Knowledge

After organizing information through sorting and classifying the information interpreting information enhanced the nurse’s movement to knowledge. Interpretation of concepts from the different articles was necessary towards enhancing understanding. The arguments from the different arguments were then integrated to generate understanding and identify the existing gaps in the prevention of fall among nursing home patients. It also helped understand the steps other practitioners have taken in the past to prevent falls. Interpreting the findings by critically analyzing the articles and integrating information forms the basis for making and justifying the decisions made.

Information to usable knowledge

Relying on information from epistemic communities makes it easily acceptable as usable knowledge. By thus collaborating and working with experts in nursing home patients it is possible to separate and understand the knowledge that is usable and that which is not. Relying on authoritative sources made it easier for policymakers and scholars to accept the recommendations towards improving and supporting the decisions and choices made.

Knowledge to wisdom

This level entailed making use of knowledge to prevent falls in a nursing home. It entailed making use of available case studies. In this level, I made use of the available best practice methods to choose the practices that best would help prevent falls in a nursing home. It also entailed using the available knowledge to provide care that takes into consideration the needs of the patients and nurses towards preventing falls in nursing homes. Staff education was found to be one way that has helped reduce the number of patient falls (Minor, 2009). There is however little emphasis on educating patients in ways that would reduce falls in nursing homes. In this case, therefore, there is a need for employing a combination of factors that include educating and compensating them for falls as a way of preventing falls among nursing home patients.

Conclusion

The Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom informs decision making and enhances making use of usable knowledge in creating nursing intervention measures. With the availability of nursing informatics tools like electronic health records and information systems, it is easy to gather and classify information. Nurses then use the information to generate and interpret knowledge required to make wise choices. Reducing falls in nursing home patients can make use of the model in the creation of an appropriate policy that responds to both the needs of the nurses and patients.

References

Bouldin, E. D., Andresen, E. M., Dunton, N. E., Simon, M., Waters, T. M., Liu, M., ... & Shorr, R. I. (2013). Falls among adult patients hospitalized in the United States: prevalence and trends. Journal of patient safety, 9(1), 13.

Minor, M. (2009). Patient Falls. Sustained improvement in nursing quality: hospital performance on NDNQI indicators, 2007-2008, 149.

Moen, A., & Maeland Knudsen, L. M. (2013). Nursing informatics: decades of contribution to health informatics. Healthcare informatics research, 19(2), 86-92.