Patient Falls in Labor and Delivery

Poster PresentationPurpose for the ProgramAt an urban academic medical center with approximately 2200 births per year, 10 falls occurred in labor and delivery (L&D) unit in a 12‐month period. None of the patients who fell was categorized, as high risk for falling, which led the nurses to ask if the current risk scale for falls was useful in the perinatal population. The hospital‐wide falls screening tool had little application in the perinatal population because the tool was validated in the geriatric population. A review of the literature revealed little evidence as most studies excluded perinatal patients from their validation work. The purpose of this project was to create an obstetric specific falls prevention program and screening tool to identify women at risk of falling and decrease the number of falls in the L&D unit.Proposed ChangeTo create a population specific falls prevention program and screening tool to identify pregnant women at risk of falling and decrease the incidence of falls in the perinatal population.Implementation, Outcomes, and EvaluationA review of literature was conducted using CINAHL and PubMed. Search terms included falls and pregnancy. Nine publications related to falls in pregnancy met search the criteria. Findings from this review indicated history of previous fall, visual disturbances, sedentary life style, and edema in feet and ankles during pregnancy as most predictive of risk of falling. Along with the review of literature, an in...
Source: Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Childbearing Source Type: research