None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Falls are a debilitating and common problem in Australian hospitals and it is estimated that between 310 falls occur per 1,000 bed days in Australian hospitals. Even though they are associated with increased length of stay and injuries, falls mitigation strategies have not had a great deal of success to date in hospital environments. Previous attempts to prevent falls have focused on clinician education and environmental modifications. The current project will use qualitative methods for a series of interviews with patients and clinicians to understand their views and knowledge on falls prevention educational interventions.
Interventions
This is an exploratory qualitative study on patient and clinician perspectives of patient education hospital falls prevention.
This study aims to:
*Explore patients’ perceptions of falls prevention education. To determine what barriers and facilitators exist in understanding and adhering to falls prevention education.
*Understand clinician knowledge, expectations, views and attitudes towards hospital falls prevention and accompanying education and training programs.
A number of focus groups
This is an exploratory qualitative study on patient and clinician perspectives of patient education hospital falls prevention. This study aims to: *Explore patients’ perceptions of falls prevention education. To determine what barriers and facilitators exist in understanding and adhering to falls prevention education. *Understand clinician knowledge, expectations, views and attitudes towards hospital falls prevention and accompanying education and training programs. A number of focus groups will be conducted by an experienced qualitative researcher and facilitator who will not be known to participants. A note-taker will also be present during focus group sessions to capture non-verbal or emotional responses, and observations. These sessions will be audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim by an independent transcription service. The interviews will be semi-structured and subject to time constraints, participant fatigue and information gained. These questions are informed by a literature review as well as consultation with content experts. Demographic data will be collected from participants. For patient participants, these will include age, comorbidities, reason for hospitalisation, pre-morbid level of mobility and history of falls. For clinician participants, demographic data collected will be occupation, years of clinical experience, area of work (e.g. acute medical, oncology, geriatric rehabilitation). The semi-structured interview will include questions about patient/clinician beliefs and knowledge about falls prevention, and what they want from hospital falls prevention education programs.
Sponsors
La Trobe University
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Patients will be included if they are: (i) adults (>18 years); (ii) able to speak, read and understand English; (iii) medically stable; and (iv) willing and able to give informed consent. The inclusion criteria for clinicians are: (i) qualified registered nurses or allied health clinicians (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists, dieticians, social workers) who are most likely involved in falls prevention; (ii) adults (>18 years); (iii) able to speak, read, write and understand English; and (iv) willing and able to give informed consent.
Exclusion criteria
Patients will be excluded if they have cognitive impairment as informally judged by nursing staff. Any clinicians who are working in non-inpatient settings will be excluded.
Outcome results
None listed