Views of key stakeholders on the causes of patient falls and prevention interventions: A qualitative study using the international classification of functioning, disability and health.

Aims And Objectives: To examine the views and suggestions of healthcare professionals, patients and family members on the causes of inpatient falls and fall-prevention practices.

Background: Patient falls are one of the most prevalent medical errors in the hospitals. In order to prevent patient falls, it is necessary to identify and classify the situations causing falls in detail and preventive interventions for these situations need to be developed.

Design: The study was designed using a descriptive qualitative research method.

Method: The semi-structured interviews were conducted with four physicians, four charge nurses, 12 nurses, four support staff members, eight patients and eight family members of patients in the palliative, internal disease, surgery and orthopaedic clinics in a training and research hospital between March 2017-May 2017. Thematic analysis method was used to analyse data. The defined themes were classified based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Set for Falls in Acute Rehabilitation Settings.

Results: In this research, 71 themes related to situations causing falls and 30 themes related to prevention interventions were determined. Defined themes were linked with 44 categories under five International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health domains and organised accordingly. Among the categories included in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health Core Set for Falls in Acute Rehabilitation Settings, 65% were verified, while 22 new categories that were not included in the original core set were defined.

Conclusion: In accordance with this result, evaluating the opinions of all stakeholders on the research and development of fall-prevention programmes will increase the effectiveness of fall prevention in hospitals. The ICF model can be used to classify the causes of falls and fall-prevention interventions to create a common language about this topic.

Relevance To Clinical Practice: To prevent falls, more detailed and useful information can be obtained by key stakeholders (all healthcare professionals, patient and patient family). ICF Core Set For Falls can be used to systematically classify causes of falls and fall-prevention interventions.