Impact of Fall Prevention on Nurses and Care of Fall Risk Patients

Falls are common events for hospitalized older adults, resulting in negative outcomes both for patients and hospitals. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has placed pressure on hospital administrators by identifying falls as a "never event", resulting in a zero falls goal for many hospitals. Staff nurses are responsible for providing direct care to patients and for meeting the hospital no falls goal. Little is known about the impact of "zero falls" on nurses, patients and the organization.

A qualitative study, using Grounded Dimensional Analysis (GDA) was conducted to explore nurses' experiences with fall prevention in hospital settings and the impact of those experiences on how nurses provide care to fall risk patients. Twenty-seven registered nurses and certified nursing assistants participated in in-depth interviews. Open, axial and selective coding was used to analyze data. A conceptual model which illustrates the impact of intense messaging from nursing administration to prevent patient falls on nurses, actions nurses take to address the message and the consequences to nurses, older adult patients and to the organization was developed.

Intense messaging from hospital administration to achieve zero falls resulted in nurses developing a fear of falls, protecting self and unit, and restricting fall risk patients as a way to stop messages and meet the hospital goal.

Results of this study identify unintended consequences of fall prevention message on nurses and older adult patients. Further research is needed understand how nurse care for fall risk patients.