Nurses’ role in risk assessment and prevention of fall injuries among elderly living in the long-term care facilities
Ogunbayo, Abidemi; Olaniyi, Mary; Peprah Darko, Louisa (2021)
Ogunbayo, Abidemi
Olaniyi, Mary
Peprah Darko, Louisa
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021120223155
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021120223155
Tiivistelmä
Fall is an inevitable occurrence in population epidemiology, a topic of global health importance that is regarded as a leading cause of unintentional death worldwide. Several risks have been attributed to fall and fall injuries in the long-term care facility. Assessment of these risks are paramount for fall prevention strategies design.
The purpose of this thesis was to conduct a descriptive literature review on the roles of nurses in fall injury prevention in a long-term care facility. The objective of this study was to educate nurses on the assessment of risk of fall and fall injury prevention strategies in the long-term care facility.
The method of this bachelor’s thesis was a descriptive literature review which was conducted using systematic methods. The process was initiated by formulating study questions, searching for literatures for data collection, screening of literatures for inclusion, assessing the quality of primary literatures data extraction, analysis of the data and presentation of our findings.
Several risk factors of falls emerged from the analysed data, and they were classified into the following categories: age, gender, previous Illnesses/ chronic disease, medications/ polypharmacy, adverse events including number of previous falls, fear of fall, types of mobility, balance disorder and risk assessment tools. On the other hand, fall prevention’s themes were further classified into four categories which were: exercise, compliant flooring, deintensification of antihypertensive drugs and virtual coaching virtual reality-based balance exercises.
In conclusion, various risk factors of falls are associated with elderly living in the long-term care facilities and different preventive strategies were found useful for fall prevention. Based on our study, it was suggested that further studies should focus on fall risk assessment, fall prevention as well as the evaluation of the efficiency of interventions put in place in several LTCFs in Finland; this can be explored using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
The purpose of this thesis was to conduct a descriptive literature review on the roles of nurses in fall injury prevention in a long-term care facility. The objective of this study was to educate nurses on the assessment of risk of fall and fall injury prevention strategies in the long-term care facility.
The method of this bachelor’s thesis was a descriptive literature review which was conducted using systematic methods. The process was initiated by formulating study questions, searching for literatures for data collection, screening of literatures for inclusion, assessing the quality of primary literatures data extraction, analysis of the data and presentation of our findings.
Several risk factors of falls emerged from the analysed data, and they were classified into the following categories: age, gender, previous Illnesses/ chronic disease, medications/ polypharmacy, adverse events including number of previous falls, fear of fall, types of mobility, balance disorder and risk assessment tools. On the other hand, fall prevention’s themes were further classified into four categories which were: exercise, compliant flooring, deintensification of antihypertensive drugs and virtual coaching virtual reality-based balance exercises.
In conclusion, various risk factors of falls are associated with elderly living in the long-term care facilities and different preventive strategies were found useful for fall prevention. Based on our study, it was suggested that further studies should focus on fall risk assessment, fall prevention as well as the evaluation of the efficiency of interventions put in place in several LTCFs in Finland; this can be explored using both qualitative and quantitative research methods.