Applying Project Management Approaches for a Quality Improvement Practice Gap-Fall prevention in hospitals

Fall prevention remains a quality improvement measure in healthcare. It eliminates adverse events attributable to hospital falls. Najafpour et al. (2019) note that in-patient falls are common quality compromises in healthcare that result in injury, prolonged hospital stays, and hospital readmission. Fall prevention enhances clinical outcomes and eliminates extra healthcare costs. Safety rounds, environmental adaptations, utilization of assistive devices, and clinician education on fall prevention are some of the best practices in fall prevention that considerably lowers the prevalence and incidence of falls in hospital care settings.

SMART Objectives

The first objective is to enhance clinician understanding of fall prevention measures through structured education on fall risk factors and best practices for preventing falls. This objective is specific as it focuses on enhancing clinicians’ knowledge of fall prevention and risk factors for falls. It is measurable as it can be evaluated through in-training evaluative tests. It is also assignable as it can be implemented through in-job training. This objective is also relevant as it maintains effectiveness in reducing the incidents of hospital falls. LeLaurin & Shorr (2019) report that enhancing clinician education on fall prevention results in a reduction in fall incidences as it equips them with the best strategies to safeguard their patients against preventable falls. This objective is also timely as it can be achieved within one to three training sessions.

The second objective is to equip patients and their families with the best strategies in healthcare communication to enable them to engage their caregivers in implementing patient-related risk prevention measures. This objective is specific as it focuses on the best communication skills and strategies. It is measurable as patients can be evaluated on their mastery of best communication strategies. It is also achievable as it can be implemented at the bedside and during therapy. Morris et al. (2022) assert that bedside engagement with patients can provide a platform for educating them on best communication and healthcare strategies. This objective is relevant as it enables fall prevention in hospitals. Patient-caregiver engagement during care enables the detection of risk factors for falls and may enable them to educate their patients on best practices to minimize falls (Heng et al., 2020). This objective is also timely as it can be implemented in one or two sessions.

Project Management Activities

Structured training of clinicians on risk factors for falls and fall prevention projects can be used to address fall prevention in hospitals. In this project, all clinicians involved in patient handling are drawn and educated on these provisions. This can be implemented through formal training sessions involving lectures, tutors, and mentors. This program will be said to be successful when clinicians are better knowledgeable on fall prevention measures. This activity provides the best support as it equips providers with knowledge on fall prevention, thereby making them better accountable in their care provision.

Another project activity that can be useful in meeting the objectives outlined is a structured bedside engagement with the patients and their families to educate them on best communication practices. This engagement draws one or more members of the clinical teams with knowledge of healthcare communication strategies. Their role in this regard is to educate the patients on the strategies of engaging caregivers and their significance in preventing falls. This activity provides the best support to these patients as it is individualized and allows caregivers to tailor their communication process to specific patients. This ensures that the patients better understand the provision communicated to them.

Fall prevention remains a quality improvement measure in healthcare. Project management on fall prevention that targets educative approaches to fall prevention maintains significance in lessening hospital falls. Educating clinicians on fall prevention and patients on health care communications are some of the best practices in fall prevention. Activities in these practices enhance clinicians’ and patients’ understanding of fall prevention measures.

 References

Heng, H., Jazayeri, D., Shaw, L., Kiegaldie, D., Hill, A.-M., & Morris, M. E. (2020). Hospital falls prevention with patient education: A scoping review. BMC Geriatrics, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-020-01515-w