After Reading about your journal falls are such a good topic to discuss. Most hospitals have committees such as fall committees that come up with great ideas to help prevent falls. Working in a hospital falls are pretty common among the elderly but also patients who are postoperative. I saw on your fish bone you mentioned lack of pain control could increase falls. This was very interesting to me. I have never thought that pain would increase falls in a nursing home setting until after reading this information and studying it more. I worked in a nursing home for 1 year as CNA and had never once considered that pain would increase the patients risk for fall in a nursing home. Everybody in a nursing home is at risk for falls but reading this article provide to me that pain in the elderly especially in a nursing home is over looked. When people are in increased pain the may have a fear of falling which places them at a much greater risk to fall. “Pain and Fear of falling are potentially modifiable factors that may play an important role in functional performance of nursing home residents” (Kalinowski, 2019). Increasing functional performance of ADL’s and pain control for residents can decrease the chances of depression, fear of falling, and better their lives. This particular study provided a “seminar consisted of five modules: (a) basics, (b) pharmacological treatment, (c) nonpharmacological treatment, (d) pain assessment, and (e) reflecting on one’s attitudes to pain and developing an improved awareness of pain”(Kalinowski, 2019). “Unless both of these key aspects of pain and fear of falling are explored and addressed, the risk of further impairments of functional performance may increase, leading to additional dependence on care” (Kalinowski,2019).
Kalinowski, S., Dräger, D., Kuhnert, R., Kreutz, R., & Budnick, A. (2019). Pain, Fear of Falling, and Functional Performance Among Nursing Home Residents: A Longitudinal Study. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(2), 191–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945918759958
Hi Whitney
You are correct that pain in nursing homes is overlooked sometimes. I worked as a float nurse in several nursing homes and realized that the nursing shortage was a problem in every one of them. Nurses sometimes will end up with up to 24 patients making it hard for nurses to effectively manage pain levels in patients with chronic pain. Patient’s in pain often attempt to get up due to the discomfort. When a patient’s pain is managed, it helps calm and relax them thereby reducing risk for falls.
With such a large percentage of patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities having hypertension, it is not surprising that there is a need for an assessment that can prevent patient falls. after reading your article and research critique, I completely agree with your stance on how an assessment can aid in the prevention of these falls. In a similar study, it was discovered that 43% of women in a 6000 patient study, all of whom were hypertensive, experienced at least one fall in the one year that the data was collected (Margolis et. al., 2019). I attached the link below and hope it helps you along with your project.
Margolis, K. L., Buchner, D. M., LaMonte, M. J., Zhang, Y., Di, C., Rillamas, S. E., Hunt, J., Ikramuddin, F., Li, W., Marshall, S., Rosenberg, D., Stefanick, M. L., Wallace, R., & LaCroix, A. Z. (2019). Hypertension Treatment and Control and Risk of Falls in Older Women. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(4), 726–733. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1111/jgs.15732
You picked a good topic that affects my areas in nursing. An article I read said that a patient was 3x as likely to experience a fall than a patient without pain. vfndifon brings up a good point on how having an excessive patient load makes it harder to manage chronic pain increasing the risk of having a fall during your shift.
After Reading about your journal falls are such a good topic to discuss. Most hospitals have committees such as fall committees that come up with great ideas to help prevent falls. Working in a hospital falls are pretty common among the elderly but also patients who are postoperative. I saw on your fish bone you mentioned lack of pain control could increase falls. This was very interesting to me. I have never thought that pain would increase falls in a nursing home setting until after reading this information and studying it more. I worked in a nursing home for 1 year as CNA and had never once considered that pain would increase the patients risk for fall in a nursing home. Everybody in a nursing home is at risk for falls but reading this article provide to me that pain in the elderly especially in a nursing home is over looked. When people are in increased pain the may have a fear of falling which places them at a much greater risk to fall. “Pain and Fear of falling are potentially modifiable factors that may play an important role in functional performance of nursing home residents” (Kalinowski, 2019). Increasing functional performance of ADL’s and pain control for residents can decrease the chances of depression, fear of falling, and better their lives. This particular study provided a “seminar consisted of five modules: (a) basics, (b) pharmacological treatment, (c) nonpharmacological treatment, (d) pain assessment, and (e) reflecting on one’s attitudes to pain and developing an improved awareness of pain”(Kalinowski, 2019). “Unless both of these key aspects of pain and fear of falling are explored and addressed, the risk of further impairments of functional performance may increase, leading to additional dependence on care” (Kalinowski,2019).
Kalinowski, S., Dräger, D., Kuhnert, R., Kreutz, R., & Budnick, A. (2019). Pain, Fear of Falling, and Functional Performance Among Nursing Home Residents: A Longitudinal Study. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(2), 191–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945918759958
Hi Whitney
You are correct that pain in nursing homes is overlooked sometimes. I worked as a float nurse in several nursing homes and realized that the nursing shortage was a problem in every one of them. Nurses sometimes will end up with up to 24 patients making it hard for nurses to effectively manage pain levels in patients with chronic pain. Patient’s in pain often attempt to get up due to the discomfort. When a patient’s pain is managed, it helps calm and relax them thereby reducing risk for falls.
With such a large percentage of patients in hospitals and healthcare facilities having hypertension, it is not surprising that there is a need for an assessment that can prevent patient falls. after reading your article and research critique, I completely agree with your stance on how an assessment can aid in the prevention of these falls. In a similar study, it was discovered that 43% of women in a 6000 patient study, all of whom were hypertensive, experienced at least one fall in the one year that the data was collected (Margolis et. al., 2019). I attached the link below and hope it helps you along with your project.
Margolis, K. L., Buchner, D. M., LaMonte, M. J., Zhang, Y., Di, C., Rillamas, S. E., Hunt, J., Ikramuddin, F., Li, W., Marshall, S., Rosenberg, D., Stefanick, M. L., Wallace, R., & LaCroix, A. Z. (2019). Hypertension Treatment and Control and Risk of Falls in Older Women. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(4), 726–733. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fhsu.edu/10.1111/jgs.15732
You picked a good topic that affects my areas in nursing. An article I read said that a patient was 3x as likely to experience a fall than a patient without pain. vfndifon brings up a good point on how having an excessive patient load makes it harder to manage chronic pain increasing the risk of having a fall during your shift.
Stubbs, B. (2014, July). Pain Is Associated with Recurrent Falls in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Evidence from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pain Medicine. https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/15/7/1115/1877634