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SafetyIssue During Clinical
Patientsafety is an important aspect of healthcare. Any factor thatinterferes with patient safety lowers the quality of health careservices. Patient fall is a common safety issue among the elderly(Miake-Lye, Hempel, Ganz & Shekelle, 2013). This paper discussesfalls as a safety issue among adult patients and provides appropriateinterventions.
Patientfalls can be caused by patient-related or external factors. Generalbody weakness may put sick adults at high risk of falling whilemoving or getting out of bed. Medications may reduce the strength ofpatients. Patients’ vision ability is a contributing factor tofalls (Miake-Lye etal.,2013). The external factors include the physical environment wherepatient moves. Obstacles within the patient room or hallways maycause patients to fall. Walking aids that have problems may result infalls. This issue may result in injury, fractures, bruises or evendisability to the patient.
Variousmeasures can be used to address patient fall. Increasing awareness ofthe potential severity of a fall is an appropriate approach toreducing falls. This enables patients to report falling immediatelyit happens for early detection and prevention or treatment of anyresultant complications. Patients who fall would go for assessments,and this would facilitate early detection and solving of any issues(Miake-Lye etal.,2013). Determining the risk of falling for all patients is importantwhen implementing measures such as by relocating them to a room wherethey have easier and safer access to everything that they require.All the patients should engage in exercises to improve their strengthand balance. Eye check-ups help to determine the vision ability ofpatients. This will assist in making choices such as the type ofequipment or physical structures in patient rooms. Another measure isto identify the habits of each patient such as when they are mostactive, and how often they visit the toilet (Sanchez, 2012). Thisenables more individualized monitoring of patients, especially thoseat high risk of falling.
Reference
Miake-Lye,I. M., Hempel, S., Ganz, D. A., & Shekelle, P. G. (2013).Inpatient fall prevention programs as a patient safety strategy: asystematic review. Annalsof internal medicine, 158(5_Part_2),390-396.
Sanchez,J. (2012). Patientsafety.Philadelphia: Saunders.