Fall Risk Follow Up Question

Sun0408, ASN, RN · Mar 23, 2011

I am not in L&D but when I was pregnant the only time I was not allowed to walk or go to the bathroom etc was if I had an epi or the baby was crowning.. The rest of the time I was able to move around freely. This was my experience all 3 times :)

In general we do fall assessment qshift for all pts.

NPinWCH · Mar 23, 2011

We did them on admission. We didn't do them for patients in labor or with epidurals or those who were post op mostly because they were either not allowed up, or allowed up. There was no in between.

The only patients that ever really got a "falling star" were those with mobility issues or those who were blind.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 23, 2011

We are supposed to do a fall risk assessment at every shift, as part of shift assessment.

redessa · Mar 23, 2011

I just have to chime in here with what happened when I had my first baby.

I had been sent home from the hospital earlier that day (even though my Dr said he wanted them to admit me). So by the time I went back, I was at 7cm. The nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural. My only question was if there was still time! There was (but barely). So I got the epidural and was immediately wheeled into a delivery room.

Once we got there, they (the nurses/CNAs) were telling me how they were going to transfer me from the gurney to the delivery table. Having JUST gotten the epidural and the fact that it was my first baby and I didn't know any better, I told them I thought I could still walk. So they said "okay" then stood back to watch with looks of amusement on their faces. I managed to get off the gurney just fine and then fell right on my face (onto the delivery table).

They just kind of chuckled and helped me onto the bed but I never have been able to figure out why let me do that in the first place. They obviously knew I wasn't going to be able to hold myself up. Seems like that situation could have gone very badly, very quickly.