Fall prevention among children in the presence of caregivers in a paediatric ward: a best practice implementation.

Aim: This study aims to reduce the incidence of falls in paediatric inpatients aged 3 and below by implementing fall prevention strategies.

Methods: The Joanna Briggs Institute Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System and Getting Research into Practice programmes were used for this project. The project was carried out in three phases over a 4-month period from March to June 2011. A fall prevention poster was introduced during the implementation phase, and pre- and post-implementation audits were carried out in a 43-bed acute care paediatric ward in Singapore, with a sample size of 30.

Results: The audit result of Criterion 1, evaluating the effectiveness of the fall prevention measures, improved by 13%, to 93%. Criterion 2, measuring nurses' compliance in the regular reinforcement of safety, improved significantly by 27%, to 40%. However, Criterion 3, which measured nurses' compliance in identifying patients at high risk of falls by placing a green identification wrist tag on such patients, decreased by 23%, to 50%.

Discussion: A multi-language poster on fall prevention was strategically positioned at the foot of all the cots. The poster served as an effective reminder and communication method between nurses and caregivers and also among caregivers of the child. Caregivers' increased awareness and knowledge of fall prevention contributed to a 50% decrease in fall incidence of patients aged 3 and below in the presence of a caregiver from January to June 2011, as compared with the incidence rate in 2010.

Conclusion: This project has shown that fall incidents can be reduced when caregivers' awareness of fall prevention measures in the hospital setting were to be improved. The poster on fall prevention has increased caregivers' awareness and reduced inpatient falls in the acute care setting. The pre- and post-implementation audits showed that the presence of a poster on fall prevention to remind parents/caregivers to raise and securely lock the cot rails at all times was effective in reducing the number of falls for children aged 3 years and below. The experience gained from this project was that communication to every staff member and caregivers is essential in implementing practice change. As a result of the study, the hospital plans to implement constant monitoring and reminders to nurses and caregivers to improve compliance to the recommended measures on fall prevention in the near future.