Fall initiative

Each team member is given a time for each hour of the shift to complete a "lightning round" safety check. We have to go into each room and check if call light is in reach, bed locked, low, side rails up, bed alarm on, fall score written on the door, no cords or trip hazards. I know that there are usually less falls on day shift than night shift, I am not sure what the reason for this is- are night RNs not completing rounds, less lighting, more confused pts, pts sleepy/less aware of surroundings, I am not sure. There are many times I have found bed alarms unplugged. Even with the rounds though, I think the number of falls is pretty consistent and it is one of the hardest nursing quality indicators to improve no matter what plan is in place to prevent them.

We use high/lo beds with mats, exit alarms, bed checks and chair checks. We decreased our fall rate by over 40% this year. Falls still happen and we have things to put in place but as nurses we need to use the right tools.