This will be an evidence based appraisal of an aspect of your practice Essay

This will be an evidence based appraisal of an aspect of your practice and include making recommendations for nursing practice a - Essay Example 1472). Fall-related injuries are seen in about 15% to 50% of patients – these injuries include fractures or lacerations. Moreover, falls often cause fears of falling and it subsequently causes activity restriction and prolonged hospital stay (Schwendiman, p. 1472). Different factors have been considered as possible contributory causes for falls, including, an aging population, rising patient acuity, nurse shortages, an inefficient staff, and similar factors (Hendrich). Measures to prevent falls have been implemented by various hospitals in their clinical setting; however, for the most part, these methods have not been able to significantly reduce the rates of falls. This paper shall explore different ways by which nurses can prevent inpatient falls. It shall answer the question: according to evidence-based practice, what are the efficient nursing interventions which can be applied to prevent inpatient falls. Methods: An extensive literature search was conducted for this paper. First, a manual library search of the school library was carried out – searching medical and nursing journals for published studies in relation to falls and the prevention of falls. This search covered the past five years: January 2006 to December 2010. Relevant studies were set aside for further evaluation. Next, an internet search was carried out through the following databases: Medline, PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and other nursing journals. The Medline database was used because it presented a reliable database of medical and nursing related peer-reviewed researches from a variety of nursing and medical journals. The Cochrane database was chosen because it has the widest and most extensive database for peer-reviewed medical and nursing-related researches. This database yielded studies which were used for this assessment. Finally, Google scholar was also used because it is one of the fastest databases to search. It stores all academic journals and studies from a wide-range o f topics. Moreover, it has search properties which were chosen in order to specify the search process and ensure reliable search results. A Google scholar search was carried out in order to facilitate the search process. The following search words and combinations were entered into the search engines: falls prevention; inpatient falls prevention; elderly falls prevention, and similar combinations. Studies falling within the 5 year period were set aside for further evaluation. Each study were then critically analysed based on the following elements: reliability of authors, peer-review process, publication in a reliable peer-reviewed journal, validity of research methods, reliability of results, and validity of general research process. Results: Based on the search results, there were 10 studies which fulfilled the criteria for this research topic. Various studies presented methods for the prevention of falls. Some of these methods were evaluated depending on effectiveness and impact on clients. In a paper by Schwendiman, et.al., (p. 1472), the authors carried out a serial survey study in order to evaluate in-patient fall rates and injuries before and after the implementation of an interdisciplinary falls prevention program (IFP) in a 300-bed urban public hospital. In the process of research, the authors were able to establish that falls often lead to negative consequences like injuries,