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It’s that time of year again that everyone celebrates the holidays.  So as I tripped on some holiday lights this weekend, I thought it would be a great reminder to share some tips to prevent nursing home falls this holiday season.

These are just 5 Tips to Prevent Nursing Home Falls During the Holidays

Tip # 1:  Keep the decorations off the floor.  This may seem like common sense, but as I walk into nursing homes I see the holiday decorations that are set up on the floor, especially in family meeting areas.  This can lead to a nursing home preventable fall by either a resident or a family member or visitor.  If you are celebrating Christmas by having a Christmas Tree, then make sure that there is not a skirt or packages or lights on the ground that a resident can trip and fall on.

Tip # 2:  What goes up, will come down.   Things that are hung up on the ceiling or on windows with tape, will eventually fall to the ground.  Thus creating another potential nursing home preventable fall.  It’s easy to prevent falls of this type by having staff members, whether caregivers, janitorial staff or dietary employees, pay attention and make it a priority to watch for anything that has fallen to the ground and pick it up.

Tip # 3:  When there is a party, make sure that the floors stay clean.  This is where you want to eat, sing and be merry in celebration of the holidays, but you also want to make sure that no party punch or liquids fall the floor with residents or visitors moving around so much.   So prevent this nursing home fall by being more watchful during parties or celebrations and make sure everyone is watching the floor and ready to clean any area immediately.

Tip # 4:  Keep the handrails clear.  You may want to decorate the handle rails and walking areas, but resist the urge to put anything on this area.  You sure wouldn’t want a nursing home fall just because you wanted to make the walls look more festive.

Tip # 5:  Bows and Wrapping Paper are pretty, but they can also be a nursing home fall risk.   Do you remember how when you were a kid the wrapping paper and bows always tend to end up on the floor.  Well, it doesn’t matter what your age is, wrapping paper and bows still end up on the floor, maybe just not as much as it did in the past.  So keep a trash can near by and make sure that residents don’t take the pretty bows and put them on their walkers or wheelchairs, as they will usually end up on the floor, and causing another nursing home preventable fall.

Please feel free to add your suggestions to this list, as there are many other ways to fall during the holidays, but I wanted to get these out on the web as fast as I could.

To learn more about avoiding nursing home preventable falls, please visit www.medicalnursetraining.com/LongTermCare.html

To avoid kidney stones this holiday season, be sure to keep your residents fully hydrated.  To learn more, please visit www.avoidkidneystones.com 

I came across this article on 7 Ways Seniors Can Avoid Falls by Lance P. Van Arsdell

I thought that this would be appropriate for Nursing Homes as well as Hospitals to pay attention to and may be use as they prepare their at home Fall Prevention Family Education Booklets.

FALL PREVENTION, BED SAFETY & RESTRAINT REDUCTION
NURSE TRAINING COURSE OUTLINE

In institutions, more than half of those with high risk factors fall every year. And one out of ten of these falls results in a serious injury. This program will help you identify risk factors for falls, both in the patient population and in the hospital environment, and it will help you take steps to prevent falls.  Falls among older patients and other-at-risk patients are very common.

OVERVIEWThis activity describes strategies and techniques for reducing / preventing falls. It is divided into the following parts.

a. Introduction

b. Nursing Home & Hospital Bed Entrapment and Hospital Bed Safety

c. Slide Program Review

d. Falls Management

PURPOSE/OVERALL GOALThe purpose of this activity is to provide nurses and others a review of strategies and techniques to minimize or prevent patient falls.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

After completing this course, the learner should be able to:

a. Define “restraints” according to Government Guidelines and Regulations.

b. Describe Fall Prevention/Protection, Protocols and New Alternatives to Restraint Products.

c. Describe indications and contraindications to various restraint and restraint free devices.

d. Describe selection strategy and authorized application techniques for restraints, postural supports, restraint alternatives, and New Bed Safety Devices as per CMS/FDA.

e. Describe in detail Hospital Bed Safety Work Group Bed requirements for safe bed environment.

f. Describe options to bed side rails as restraints.

g. Describe “Less Restrictive Alternatives” as required by JCAHO 2003, including QI Audit Documentation with special emphasis on the Joint Commission Patient Safety Goals, patient/resident family falls education and new less restrictive devices.

h. Describe and explain fall equipment, patient fall identifiers (as required by the Joint Commission) and criteria for utilization.

i. Identify root causes of patient falls and ways to prevent and protect patients.

j. Describe the training tools provided on the new CMS Restraint Regulations, including new interpretive guidelines released on 4-18-2008.

In our next post, we will talk about course options that are available for nurses to take online nurse training. We have Hospital Fall Prevention Protocols included in the package that you can take and use to modify your current protocols with. We are also one of the only few companies that offer fall prevention video training and have world class experts to teach the topics from institutions such as Johns Hopkins Hospital and Inova Health System.

To get started with our course, click here to visit Medical Nurse Training or type in www.MedicalNurseTraining.com