PROMPT
You are assigned to a quality team on a rehabilitation floor where patient falls are on the rise. What strategy would be best to approach this issue—quality improvement, evidence-based practice, or research? Support your choice with one or two examples and one or two references.

SOLUTION
The best strategy to use to decrease patient falls in the unit is by quality improvement approach. Quality improvement is a measure of interventions that are set in place and . The theory of quality improvement is to enhance patient safety and satisfaction, which is important in a healthcare facility. Quality improvement identifies problems within a current process, then utilizes other interventions to improve that process. Fall prevention remains as a continuous quality improvement project for all health care facilities (Lopez et al. 2022). Since the overall etiology of falls remains unclear and continues to be an issue for most healthcare systems, many organizations have adopted the Hester Davis Scale for risk assessment and prevention (Hester & Davis, 2013). The Hester Davis Fall Prevention Program uses very detailed assessments that helps to identify contributing factors to patient falls. Patients in the rehabilitation phase are at high risk for falls, as they try to prove independence of performing ADLs. Being a part of a quality team on a rehabilitation floor, the Hester Davis program is what will be used to improve quality measures.

References

Lopez, M., Ma, C., Aavik, L., & Cortes, T. A. (2022). Implementing a quality improvement program to reduce falls and increase patient medication satisfaction in an academic medical center. Geriatric Nursing, 49, 207–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2022.09.002

Hester, A. L., & Davis, D. M. (2013). Validation of the Hester Davis Scale for fall risk assessment in a neurosciences population. The Journal of neuroscience nursing : journal of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses, 45(5), 298–305. https://doi.org/10.1097/JNN.0b013e31829d8b44