Paper Example on Contribution Factors for Occurrences of Falls

Falls among the elderly have many severe effects, and in some cases, they lead to the death of a victim. In many cases, these falls occur after a person becomes weak because of old age. Moreover, a person may go to a care home, and this may increase the chances of falling due to unfamiliarity with its setting. Additionally, the research of Severo and colleagues (2018) identified issues such as walking limitation, high frequency of urination, and the period after surgery as increasing the chances of a person falling. The study also identified the lack of a caregiver, administration of some medication before surgery, and disorientation. Moreover, older people are usually at a high risk of having dementia, which significantly increases their chances of falling.

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Strategies that Registered Nurses can Implement to Minimise the Occurrence of Falls

Registered nurses have a duty to reduce instances of falls among older people. Firstly, they need to assess settings to identify risk factors and reduce them. For example, if a particular medication causes people to fall, then the registered nurse should advise them to sit after using this drug. Additionally, nurses may develop exercise programmes for their patients to increase their physical strength and reduce the chances of falling CITATION Naj191 \l 1033 (Najafpour, Godarzi, Arab, & Yaseri, 2019). The nurses can also educate the patients about their environment, and prescribe medications to them that do not increase their chances of falling. These strategies can significantly reduce the chances of a person falling.

Discussion Questions

Question 1

Currently, several strategies are implemented to reduce cases of falls among the elderly. However, these methods are not always successful. Consequently, these cases are still in increasing trend. The reasons for this upward shift include the growing number of older people. Moreover, since dementia upsurges, the chances of the elderly falling, a rise in cases of this disease will lead to more falls. Another factor that causes this rise is the fact that older adults visit and live in home care centres; these settings can cause them to fall if they do not understand the environment well enough. Finally, some medications and surgeries increase the chances of falling, and therefore, if diseases that cause people to get these drugs will lead to more falls.

Question 2

People living in rural areas are at a high risk of falling, and the falls may lead to injury or death in some cases. The fact that these people live in rural areas means that they cannot get help quickly when they need it. Therefore, educational initiatives need to focus on these areas. Specifically, they should help the people know methods of preventing these falls and reducing the severity of their effects when the happen. For instance, they should let people know ways of minimizing the factors that increase their chances of falling. Moreover, they should tell them about first aid methods for helping injured victims.

Replies to Posts

Post 1

This first post develops an excellent discussion of factors that cause falls. The way that it divides them into two groups makes it easy to understand them well. Notably, the author divides them into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. According to the post, intrinsic factors are those that originate from a person's body and the natural ageing process. For instance, it mentions issues such as the decrease in morbidity and gait, visual impairment, physical weakness, cognitive problems, and other medical conditions. These issues are within a person's natural growth, and it is impossible to control them. Secondly, the post talks of extrinsic factors that also increase the chances of falls. These issues include environmental factors, such as slippery surfaces of stairs, loose rugs, poor lighting, and clutter. This post also discusses other factors that increase the chances of falling in the environment in which a person lives. Finally, the post shows methods that nurses can use to reduce the chances of falling. For instance, it recognises the duty of nurses to screen and assess risks and situations in which the elderly live. Based on the method that the author discusses these issues, the post successfully analyses this topic of falls in the elderly.

Post 2

The second post discusses interventions for dealing with falls. This post initially says that one of the significant causes of falls is the increase in the number of the elderly and the ever-increasing rate of aging among people. Secondly, this post addresses the gap between policies and practice for reducing falls. Specifically, despite the number of policies for reducing these falls, they are not implemented extensively, and this reduces their effectiveness. For instance, it states that some health workers do not know methods of minimizing these falls, and this factor limits their ability to help the elderly. The post says that this factor comes from the lack of sufficient training and education that these nurses get. The post also discusses some appropriate methods of reducing falls. For instance, it states that exercise education may help these people to develop better balancing abilities, and it will strengthen them, thus, making them experience fewer falls. Finally, since some forms of exercise may not work in all cases, the post states that they should be customised for each person. This post focuses on crucial areas that are worth noting. The strategies that it recommends are practical, and they can increase the safety of the elderly in both rural and urban areas.

References

Najafpour, Z., Godarzi, Z., Arab, M., & Yaseri, M. (2019). Risk factors for falls in hospital in-patients: A prospective nested case-control study. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 8(5), 300-306. doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2019.11

Severo, I. M., Kuchenbecker, R. S., Vieira, D. F., Lucena, A. F., & Almeida, M. A. (2018). Risk factors for fall occurrence in hospitalized adult patients: A case-control study. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 26, e3016. doi:10.1590/1518-8345.2460.3016