Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the patient's perspective of fall prevention in an acute care setting to aid in the design of patient centered strategies.
Background: Falls are one of the most common adverse events in hospitals and can lead to preventable patient harm, increased length of stay, and increased healthcare costs. There is a need to understand fall risk and prevention from the patients' perspectives; however, research in this area is limited.
Methods: To understand the patient perspective, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve patients at an academic healthcare center.
Results: Qualitative analysis revealed three major themes: (1) how I see myself, (2) how I see the interventions; and (3) how I see us. The theme "How I see myself" describes patients' beliefs of their own fall risk and includes the sub-themes of awareness, acceptance/rejection, implications, emotions, and personal plan. Interventions, such as fall alarms, are illustrated in the theme "How I see the interventions" and includes the subthemes what I see and hear and usefulness of equipment. Finally, "How I see us" describes barriers to participating in the fall prevention plan.
Conclusions: Most fall prevention programs favor clinician-led plan development and implementation. Patient fall assessments needs to shift from being clinician-centric to patient-centric. Nurses must develop relationships with patients to facilitate understanding of their needs. Developing these truly patient-centered programs may reduce the over-reliance on bed alarms and allow for implementation of strategies aimed to mitigate modifiable risk factors leading to falls.
Keywords: Fall prevention; Falls; Nurse-patient relationship; Patient centered; Perception.
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