SNPG 905 Minor Project For Residential Aged Care Setting

Answer:

Falls prevention activity audit for nurses in residential aged care setting

While Australian aged population are known to have longer life expectancy, falls and fall related injury contribute to a significant proportion of injuries, leading to hospitalizations (safetyandquality.gov.au, 2012).  Research indicates that fall is one of the leading causes of harm to older adults in care. Healthcare professionals therefore are accountable for preventing falls as far as possible and minimizing the inconvenient effects (Sherrington et al., 2017). Professionals must be engaging themselves in safe care practices regarding fall prevention, and keep themselves updated regarding new policies implemented.

The proposed project aims to carry out a significant quality audit of fall prevention practices among nurses working in the aged care facility with the help of an audit tool. The main project goal would be to understand the extent to which nurses follow fall prevention guidelines set for practice in the setting and the future need of providing education to the workforce regarding the same. The primary objectives of the project are as follows-

• Evaluate through an observational audit, the nurse’s practice of fall prevention strategies within the aged care setting
• To understand the gaps in knowledge and skill level of nurses in engaging in the fall prevention activities

The aged care setting is a reputed for providing high quality care services to those in the later stages of life. The setting strives to make a mark in the healthcare arena by ensuring person-centered and safe care practices to the service users. The audit would be undertaken over four week period and the data analysis would be done over the following four weeks. The analysis would be crucial in comparing the existing literature on the concerned topic gathered from other similar settings and the proposed research findings. Recommendations would be provided for future research and changes in nursing practice for the betterment of quality of care provided. Policy changes might be informed on the basis of the key findings (Holloway & Galvin, 2016). 

References

Holloway, I., & Galvin, K. (2016). Qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=EKu-DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=healthcare+research,+book&ots=1aaG7NO3al&sig=WrPsKlqO3BovC9A5gtBVPexWbS0#v=onepage&q=healthcare%20research%2C%20book&f=false

Safetyandquality.gov.au. (2012). Preventing Falls and Harm From Falls in Older People. [online] Available at: https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Guidelines-RACF.pdf [Accessed 9 Aug. 2018].

Sherrington, C., Michaleff, Z. A., Fairhall, N., Paul, S. S., Tiedemann, A., Whitney, J., ... & Lord, S. R. (2017). Exercise to prevent falls in older adults: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Br J Sports Med, 51(24), 1750-1758. DOI https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096547