Graduation Semester and Year

Summer 2024

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Cathy Brown, DNP, RN, AGPCNP-BC, CNS

Abstract

Abstract

Background: In the United States (U.S.), falls are the leading cause of injury among adults 65 and over, resulting in 36 million falls yearly (Moreland et al., 2020). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2023), one in four older adults experiences a fall each year. Falls are the world's second most prominent cause of accidental deaths (World Health Organization [WHO], 2021). Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and non-fatal injuries among older adults (Moreland et al., 2020).

Methods: A quality improvement project that included a fall bundle was implemented in a primary clinic. A retrospective chart review was performed utilizing the clinic’s electronic health record to collect pre-intervention fall occurrences. Data was gathered over eight weeks on 100 patients over the age of 65 who met the inclusion criteria. Descriptive statistics were performed on the demographic variables, including age, gender, race, and fall history.

Results: The number of falls decreased significantly from eleven occurrences over eight weeks before the intervention to just one incident post-intervention. These findings strongly support the clinic's decision to implement routine fall risk assessments at every outpatient visit as part of its fall prevention protocol, showing measurable effectiveness in reducing the incidence of falls among our older adult patient population.

Conclusion: The considerable decrease in fall incidents, from eleven falls eight weeks before the intervention to just one fall following the intervention, underscores the need to conduct routine fall risk assessments during every outpatient visit. These results provide compelling evidence of the measurable impact of reducing falls among our older adult patient population, emphasizing the need for proactive assessment in outpatient primary care settings.

Keywords

falls, outpatient, quality improvement, older adults, elderly, geriatric, screen fall prevention, ambulatory, education, safety

Disciplines

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Comments

TO GOD BE THE GLORY

Acknowledgements:

Faculty Project Advisor: Cathy Brown, DNP, RN, AGPCNP-BC, CNS

Editor: Dr. Maura Bernasconi

Statistician: Dr. Yungfei Kao

Recommended Citation

Osborne-White, Dorothy L., "Outpatient Fall Prevention in Ambulatory Adults 65 Years Old and Over" (2024). Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects. 63.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/nursing_dnpprojects/63

Download

Included in

Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Agricultural Economics Commons, Agricultural Education Commons, Banking and Finance Law Commons, Behavioral Disciplines and Activities Commons, Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms Commons, Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Biological and Chemical Physics Commons, Body Regions Commons, Circulatory and Respiratory Physiology Commons, Clinical Epidemiology Commons, Clinical Trials Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Communications Law Commons, Community College Leadership Commons, Community Health and Preventive Medicine Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Condensed Matter Physics Commons, Counselor Education Commons, Dance Movement Therapy Commons, Development Studies Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Disability Studies Commons, Disorders of Environmental Origin Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Public Health Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Epidemiology Commons, Family Medicine Commons, Family Practice Nursing Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Geriatric Nursing Commons, Health and Medical Physics Commons, Health and Physical Education Commons, Health Communication Commons, Health Psychology Commons, Health Sciences and Medical Librarianship Commons, Health Services Research Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Homeopathy Commons, Human Factors Psychology Commons, Information Literacy Commons, Institutional and Historical Commons, Integrative Medicine Commons, Internal Medicine Commons, Interpersonal and Small Group Communication Commons, Interprofessional Education Commons, Longitudinal Data Analysis and Time Series Commons, Medical Pharmacology Commons, Medical Physiology Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Movement and Mind-Body Therapies Commons, Musculoskeletal Diseases Commons, Musculoskeletal, Neural, and Ocular Physiology Commons, Musculoskeletal System Commons, Nervous System Commons, Neurology Commons, Neurosciences Commons, Neurosurgery Commons, Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases Commons, Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing Commons, Occupational Health and Industrial Hygiene Commons, Occupational Therapy Commons, Organization Development Commons, Orthopedics Commons, Orthotics and Prosthetics Commons, Osteopathic Medicine and Osteopathy Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Environmental Sciences Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, Other Medical Sciences Commons, Other Medical Specialties Commons, Other Medicine and Health Sciences Commons, Other Nursing Commons, Other Physics Commons, Other Public Health Commons, Other Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons, Other Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons, Outdoor Education Commons, Pain Management Commons, Palliative Nursing Commons, Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms Commons, Patient Safety Commons, Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Commons, Physical Therapy Commons, Physiological Processes Commons, Physiotherapy Commons, Preventive Medicine Commons, Primary Care Commons, Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing Commons, Psychological Phenomena and Processes Commons, Public Health and Community Nursing Commons, Public Health Education and Promotion Commons, Public History Commons, Quality Improvement Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Recreational Therapy Commons, Rural Sociology Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons, Scholarly Publishing Commons, Service Learning Commons, Skin and Connective Tissue Diseases Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons, Social Welfare Commons, Social Work Commons, Somatic Bodywork and Related Therapeutic Practices Commons, Sports Medicine Commons, Sports Sciences Commons, Sports Studies Commons, Stomatognathic System Commons, Survival Analysis Commons, Sustainability Commons, Theory, Knowledge and Science Commons, Translation Studies Commons, United States History Commons, Vital and Health Statistics Commons, Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling Commons, Women's Health Commons, Women's History Commons, Work, Economy and Organizations Commons

COinS

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects

Outpatient Fall Prevention in Ambulatory Adults 65 Years Old and Over