Yellow Gowns: Fall preventative or bandaid solution?

jojo489 · Jul 10, 2015

Lol not gonna lie about it, when I first read that I envisioned patients running around in those yellow contamination gowns and I was wondering to myself how in the world them wearing that was going to prevent them from falling.

But now I understand. And I'm not sure how it would help. Maybe make them stick out more, but my patients always stick out to me and fall prevention is pretty high on my list (and I'd imagine, everyone else's).

ArmaniX, MSN, APRN · Jul 10, 2015

We use yellow gowns on baker act patients.

It won't matter what color gown (if the patient is even still in the gown) when the patient ends up on the floor.

I did read an interesting article recently about a hospital "doing away" with bed alarms. The belief was that they were creating a false security blanket and that by eliminating the alarms they actually reduced falls? My guess is the true fall risks were checked on more frequently.

Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN · Jul 10, 2015

It's all a bunch of fluff. The yellow gowns, yellow socks, little yellow triangles on the ID bands, signs above the bed, signs on the chart, "fall risk" computer charting... Time would be better spent checking on the patient instead of putting up 30 signs and alerts in various places.

dream'n, BSN, RN · Jul 10, 2015

It's not even a band-aid, it's just silly. The stickers, arm bands, gowns, etc. do not stop patients from falling, they just give Administration the feeling that they are doing something. The root cause of patient falls have nothing to do with this stuff. Patient's fall because of many reasons, they are confused, agitated, cold, have to pee, trip, slip, etc; heck even I fall every now and then. If staffing was better, I believe falls could be prevented sometimes. But the cold, hard, honest truth is that nothing short of one on one will stop falls. And even then, somewhere, someone will still fall. All we can do is our very best. But unless it's ruled that all patients will be completely tied down upon admission until discharge, falls will happen.

kiszi, RN · Jul 10, 2015

Meh, every patient on my floor has a fall risk wristband, so the meaning is lost. Better fall prevention involves identifying concrete risks and correcting them: non-skid footwear, alarms on confused patients, items within reach, etc.

Of course more staff would be fantastic, but nottt gonna haappen.

benegesserit · Jul 10, 2015

I did read an interesting article recently about a hospital "doing away" with bed alarms. The belief was that they were creating a false security blanket and that by eliminating the alarms they actually reduced falls? My guess is the true fall risks were checked on more frequently.

Our LTC facility did this about a year ago (for the most part. There's a few particularly high-risk people that still have them). We were skeptical, to say the least, but I think it's been a net positive. I haven't actually looked at what it's done to the fall rate, but I don't get the sense it's increased significantly. It's definitely reduced alarm fatigue, and makes for a more pleasant environment overall. I also think that it's led to more thought going into alternate measures such as more appropriate room placement.

Meh, every patient on my floor has a fall risk wristband, so the meaning is lost. Better fall prevention involves identifying concrete risks and correcting them: non-skid footwear, alarms on confused patients, items within reach, etc.

Yep. I don't think I've ever had a patient who didn't qualify as a fall risk unless they were totally immobile.

jdub6 · Jul 10, 2015

Ugh, we use the "yellow" system, and to my knowledge not one pt has seen the yellow band and decided to stay in bed, lol!

Seriously, I think they do absolutely nothing and every pt on my floor has them just like another poster. I read somewhere that bed alarms have never been proven effective but since more staff is never gonna happen, I have seen them prevent some falls on confused people who can't get up quickly.

Obviously more staff is best. Some pts need literally constant/1:1 or they will fall. Period. And, sometimes pt condition changes, someone who was A/O becomes confused quickly and you don't know until you find them on the floor....sadly with sick pts who change quickly, falls (just like death, infection, etc) are sometimes unavoidable. But the yellow stuff? Useless. Alarms? Helpful sometimes. More staff is the best solution but unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Miss Rayanne · Jul 11, 2015

Quite frankly, I've never liked the idea of putting patients in special gowns or marking their rooms to indicate that they are a fall risk. That kind of information should be in the chart or on the 24 hour report sheet. Personally I believe that it is a HIPPA violation. Eventually word will get around to the other patients and their families what the yellow gowns mean. This is also a dignity issue. What if the patient does not want to advertise that he or she is prone to accidents? OP, I have to agree with you. This intervention is a waste of time and does nothing to address the reason why people fall

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Jul 11, 2015

Personally, I like the bed alarms. The yellow bracelets, yellow gowns, signs, etc., do not have anything magical about them that automatically keeps a patient from falling; the best way we have is the bed alarm. We do not have "bed alarm fatigue" at my hospital; someone always goes running to the room when a bed alarm goes off. We have amazingly few falls at our facility. Our bed alarms are LOUD. The hourly room checks help tremendously, too.

MunoRN, RN · Jul 11, 2015

We use yellow socks, which apparently bestow some sort of anti-gravity properties to patients so they don't fall. I started noticing that every patient I saw in the cafeteria had yellow socks on, and were clearly not a fall risk. I brought a patient up from the ER to a floor and went to put socks on them and could only find yellow ones stocked, a nurse told me that's all they are allowed to put on all of their patients. Brilliant.

jdub6 · Jul 11, 2015

We use yellow socks, which apparently bestow some sort of anti-gravity properties to patients so they don't fall. I started noticing that every patient I saw in the cafeteria had yellow socks on, and were clearly not a fall risk. I brought a patient up from the ER to a floor and went to put socks on them and could only find yellow ones stocked, a nurse told me that's all they are allowed to put on all of their patients. Brilliant.

We also often have only yellow socks in stock, or no yellow socks at all. If you're going to do something, do it right? And I really have wondered how even those with no pt care experience at all honesty think the yellow ___(socks, gowns, whatever) actually work in real life. Anti-gravity is as good a guess as any I have come up with. (And don't get me started on the inaccuracy of the Fall Risk Assesment we use to determine if a pt will benefit from the Magical Anti Gravity Yellow Suit. Half of our "high fall risks" are totally comatose.