Morbidly Obese and Fall risk

Nurses Safety

Published

I work PDN and have a morbidly obese patient who is quite unsteady on their feet when ambulating. I've thought about this over and over in my head and not sure what I could do if they start to go down. They have a cane and a walker which they use when ambulating, but if they start to fall and I try to intervene then I'm most likely to get hurt myself.

There is no possible way I can do an assist fall, so what are some other options?

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Your agency needs to send out OT/PT to develop the plan to address this issue.

This should have already been done during the initial home care assessment and you should have already been provided with a gait belt and instructions on its use.

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He wasn't that unsteady when we first started care, I'll bring it up to my supervisor. Honestly, I don't even know if a gait belt would help in this situation.

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