Fall Prevention and Fall Protection coupled with Bed Safety and Restraint Reduction in 2009. The Train the Trainer Approach
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
In recent years it has been very difficult to find evidence based programs for fall prevention and fall protection. I have a personal reason for my involvement in this matter since my mother passed away as a direct result of a hip fracture. This event was totally preventable utilizing the techniques implemented by some forward thinking facilities like Johns Hopkins.
Facilities have been struggling with the appropriate modalities to reduce the incidence of falls and reduce restraint use at the same time. In order to find the ultimate solution requires a mix of assessment tools and up to date devices to achieve the highest reduction in fall risk. Additionally bed safety and reductions in side rail entrapment have been serious concerns especially for older beds. I also believe, as does CMS, that one of the best answers is too provide a train the trainer approach to hospital and long term care on fall prevention, fall protection, bed safety and restraint reduction. Fall Prevention Programs work particularly well in this format since fall prevention in nursing often requires significant falls training and retraining.
I began our journey to reinvent an all inclusive, evidence based program for fall prevention including online video training with over 400 pages of resources including DVD’s and manual. The best approach was to elicit the best speakers on these topics including the ADON at Johns Hopkins and a geriatric doctor at one of the top 100 hospitals, Dr. Deidre Carolan from Inova Health System. We teamed up and developed a train the trainer that is loaded with all the needed content. Finally, programs that addressed on line and in house training for; Hospital Fall Prevention, Long Term Care Fall Prevention, Restraint Reduction, Fall Prevention Protocols, Falls and Restraint Assessment, Acute Care Fall Prevention and Bed Safety.
The programs are recorded with a live audience to increase the learning and retention experience. Valuable technologies including Fall Alarms, Posey Beds, Hip Protectors, Fall Mats, Self-Releasing Devices and Restraint Alternatives are demonstrated and discussed. Reducing the impact of the new Medicare changes of October 2008 are reviewed in detail. These accredited on line training programs include all the patient/resident safety regulatory recommendations and device suggestions. Numerous tools including the new Johns Hopkins restraint, falls policies and protocols as required by the new CMS and 2009 Joint Commission recommendations. I have reviewed numerous programs and I am confident this is the most state of the art program available. Attendees report this is the best program they have ever attended for staff and nursing training.
Many regulatory guidelines are often overlooked due to lack of information from the regulating agencies. I have had the opportunity to work with and train numerous surveyors. There has often been some inconsistency between surveyors on the guidelines. The training I have done with the surveyors has reduced some of these inconsistencies. We have included much of the lessons learned in the On Line and DVD programs in a train the trainer, video and PowerPoint format. This will certainly help to minimize negative surveys in Long Term and Acute Care settings.
Testimonials and clips of the program can be viewed on www.MedicalNurseTraining.com/Testimonials.html/
Article is Copyrighted 2009 - Patrick Devaney
Patrick Devaney, BA Psychology
President and Founder, Medical Nurse Training, Inc.
Patrick has been a consultant / trainer to numerous Health Care facilities, Corporations and LTCDON Associations. Most recently as Executive Director of a state Director Of Nurses Association Long Term Care. He has trained thousands of LTC and Critical Care facilities as a speaker on fall prevention, bed safety and restraint alternatives in one and three hour accredited speaking engagements. His programs have been nationally accredited by the ANA for over 12 years with excellent results.