Educational Engagement of Patients and Families toward Fall Rate Reduction

30^th World Congress on Advanced Nursing Practice

September 04-06, 2017 | Edinburgh, Scotland

Angela Opsahl

Indiana University School of Nursing, USA

Keynote: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

Patient falls remain the number one adverse inpatient safety event around the world. Nurses strive to help reduce risk and ensure patient safety from falls in health care systems designed to prevent and mitigate hospital errors. Our patients/ families are additionally able to take a more active role in reducing falls. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the impact of a video educational intervention for patients and families added to the current fall prevention bundled interventions. The study design for determining changes after implementation of the intervention was quasi-experimental. Data was collected from a convenience sample incorporating patients from two pre-selected units (Orthopedic and Medical-Surgical) and all nursing staff participating in the study. The utilization of a pretest/post-test design for comparison of monthly and quarterly fall rate reports before, during, and after video education implementation guided the study. The implementation of this quality improvement intervention across two different patient populations achieved unit benchmarks and reduction in patient fall incidence.

Biography :

Dr. Opsahl has 27 years of experience as a registered nurse and serves as an Assistant Professor for Indiana University School of Nursing. In her previous professional role, she was the Quality Data Manager for Franciscan Health for the three area campus hospitals of Carmel, Indianapolis, and Mooresville, Indiana, USA. This position allowed her the opportunity to influence patient care through collection/submission and analysis of patient outcomes by communicating trends to staff, physicians, and administrators to improve the overall patient experience and support positive patient outcomes. Dr. Opsahl continues to assist Franciscan Health with areas of patient safety and quality improvement today. Additionally, she served as adjunct faculty for University of Indianapolis School of Nursing in the MSN program with content areas related to APRN Roles and Ethics. Dr. Opsahl has published in the Journal of Nursing Care Quality and had multiple presentations nationally on program outcomes. She is a member of Indiana Association for Healthcare Quality (President), NAHQ, Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society-Alpha Chapter, ANA, ISNA, NLN, AONE, IONE, and the Daughters of the American Revolution.