Patient Safety - Fall Prevention and Restraints

Course Summary

Preventing patient falls should be a primary goal of all health care professions. Preventing falls involves knowing why falls occur, identifying patients who are likely to fall, identifying situations in which a fall is likely to occur and identifying staff and environmental issues that might contribute to a fall. Falls are the most common adverse event in hospitals and can have serious consequences. The majority of falls happen when the patient is transferring, or being transferred, from bed to a chair or back again. Injuries that do occur tend to be serious and are associated with a high fatality rate. Despite greater awareness of patient fall risk and the implementation of fall prevention programs, the incidence of patient falls has increased in the past several decades. Patient falls continue to be a common and serious problem.