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iDEA: DREXEL LIBRARIES E-REPOSITORY AND ARCHIVES

iDEA: DREXEL LIBRARIES E-REPOSITORY AND ARCHIVES

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Use of the Medication Fall Risk Score in Post-Surgical Patients to Identify High Risk Patients

Details
Title
Use of the Medication Fall Risk Score in Post-Surgical Patients to Identify High Risk Patients
Author(s)
Lehman, Carolyn
Advisor(s)
Poyss, Alice
Keywords
Nurse administrators; Nurses--Supervision of; Falls (Accidents); Postoperative period
Date
2019-05
Publisher
Drexel University
Thesis
M.S.N., Clinical Nurse Leader -- Drexel University, 2019
Abstract
The purpose of this quality improvement project was to determine if surgical patients evaluated with a Medication Fall Risk Score (MFRS) used in conjunction with the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) would be noted as higher fall risks compared to those evaluated with only the MFS, thus eliciting a change in fall risk precautions. A retrospective chart review was performed on twenty of thirty-two patients that fell during the time frame of January 2018 to December 2018. The documented MFS of the patient assessed prior to the patient’s fall was noted. The MFRS was then calculated from data extracted from the patient’s electronic medical record to determine if the patient would have been found to be at a higher fall risk using this tool that specifically takes into account medications. After the data was collected and analyzed, it was found that half of the patients that fell were found to be higher falls risk using the MFRS tool, as compared to the MFS. This is significant, since any reduction in patient falls will be cost effective for this institution. The results of this project support the use of the MFRS to better identify surgical patients at high risk of falls. However, due to the limitations of a retrospective chart review, it can be concluded to perform a Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) on a larger sample of patients admitted to the surgical unit with appropriate follow up for implementation. Keywords: fall risk score, surgical patients, fall risk, patient falls, medications
URI
https://idea.library.drexel.edu/islandora/object/idea:10927
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Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

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