None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This study aims to understand the feasibility and cost of allied health assistants delivering a structured falls prevention education script for patients in the first 48 hours of admission to a rehabilitation hospital. We hypothesise that this project will help patients to reduce their rate of falls and injuries arising from a fall whilst in hospital. Findings from this study will contribute to society new knowledge on the effects of using different health workforce approaches to educating patients about how to reduce their risk of falls whilst in hospital. The findings may also contribute to future workforce redesign. We will seek to measure any changes in patient views and knowledge about falls prevention from before and after the education. The views of the allied health assistant staff delivering and those supervising them will also be sought via focus groups and interviews. We aim to analyse the costs of delivering patient education via allied health assistants versus: (i) an occupational therapist (ii) a physiotherapist and (iii) a registered nurse. Finally, we will track falls rates and any associated injuries during the trial and compare these to the historical data for the rehabilitation hospital.
Interventions
- The project team have prepared an evidence-based patient education script on how to prevent falls whilst in hospital, based on their recent meta-analysis of the global literature.
- The project team will train Allied Health Assistant (AHA) staff in how to deliver the falls prevention education script to adult inpatients at a stand alone rehabilitation centre.
- The training will be conducted in face to face small group workshops, facilitated by an allied health professional with expertise in
- The project team have prepared an evidence-based patient education script on how to prevent falls whilst in hospital, based on their recent meta-analysis of the global literature. - The project team will train Allied Health Assistant (AHA) staff in how to deliver the falls prevention education script to adult inpatients at a stand alone rehabilitation centre. - The training will be conducted in face to face small group workshops, facilitated by an allied health professional with expertise in education of clinicians. These training sessions will run for a minimum of three hours, with opportunity for further mentoring and feedback throughout the intervention period. The training will include the use of simulated patients to practice delivery of the education script. - As close as possible to Day One of hospital admission, patients randomised to the experimental group will be approached by an AHA under the supervision of a registered health professional (nurse, occupational therapist or physiotherapist). The patients will be invited to complete a pre-education survey. - The AHA will deliver the falls education prevention script to the patients individually, face to face. These sessions will use semi-structured discussion to educate the patient about basic falls prevention whilst in hospital. This discussion will be based on the Falls Prevention Script, in addition to the usual care Falls Prevention Brochure already in use at the hospital. It is anticipated that these discussions will take less than 30 minutes, however the AHA will be guided by the specific needs and context of individual patients. - Prior to discharge, the patients will be visited by the AHA for an informal discussion around any falls related issues and invited to complete a post-education survey. - AHA's will be invited to participate in a focus group and in-depth interviews following the intervention, along with the occupational therapists, physiotherapists and nurses involved in supervising the AHA's.
Sponsors
La Trobe University
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to 105 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
For patients: - Hospital inpatient at the stand alone rehabilitation centre - Speak, comprehend and read English For staff: - AHA staff member who is employed at the rehabilitation centre where the research is taking place - Willing to volunteer in the research project
Exclusion criteria
For patients: - Medical conditions that impair the ability to listen to, or follow, instructions - Severe cognitive impairment, dementia or delirium (as documented in the medical record) - Debilitating pain - Blind or deaf to the extent that the patient cannot use the falls education brochure - End of life care or extreme debility arising from conditions such as COVID-19 or severe cancer
Outcome results
None listed