Clinical Practice Guideline for Preventing Falls in Geriatric Patients

AbstractFalls among geriatric patients within the acute care setting constitute significant threats to their physical and mental health and quality of life. Falls, with or without injuries, can prolong the length of stay at the hospital and cause early placement in an aged care institution. The etiology of falls is a multifactorial phenomenon involving cumulative risks shared by many adults. In answering the practice focused question, the purpose of this doctorate project was to develop an evidenced-based clinical practice guideline (CPG) to provide a standardized guide to provide ready access to the evidence-based interventions found to be most effective in fall prevention. Following Walden University’s CPG manual and the AGREE II model, I developed a CPG based on peer reviewed articles and published clinical practice guidelines gathered from an in-depth literature search. The AGREE II instrument was used by the content panel to review and evaluate the newly developed CPG, and end users provided an evaluation for content and useability. Content experts also provided a summative evaluation. The AGREE scores ranged from 78% to 97% with an overall score of 94%, and end users responded with positive feedback indicating a well-developed CPG, which both strongly recommended be implemented. In the summative evaluation, two of the reviewers misunderstood the instructions included in the evaluation; the third panelist commented on how effective the project was on providing relevant information on how to best prevent falls. The anticipated social change from reducing falls is an increase in the quality of life and well-being for older adults along with a reduced fear of falling, depression, and anxiety