Do sitters prevent falls? A review of the literature

Preventing falls is a primary nursing concern, especially among older adult patients. Employing a sitter is a common but costly intervention. This article is a comprehensive review of the literature on sitter use and its effect on fall rates in acute care. The search was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and the Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection and included articles published between 1995 and 2013. The articles included reported data on studies increasing or decreasing sitter use. Sitter reduction studies showed no increase in fall rates; studies implementing sitters to reduce falls showed conflicting results. Implications include the impact to staffing and nursing practice that results from sitter use, the need for staff education programs, how sitter use can affect patient satisfaction, and the need for additional, more robust research on this topic to determine whether sitter use is evidence-based practice.