How to Involve Three Key Stakeholders in Supporting the Practice Change Recommendation

Falls are a significant cause of mortality and morbidity among older adults.  Falls are responsible for the psychological and physical outcomes resulting in loss of independence, decline in function, and death. Therefore, key stakeholders should focus on modifiable risk factors like hospital environment, muscle weakness, gait and balance, medication issues, and visual impairment to reduce falls. Therefore, the following three key stakeholders will support the practice change recommendation: health administrator, informal caregivers, and healthcare providers.

Informal caregivers play a crucial role in meeting the needs of hospitalized patients. Thus, they are a vital source of trusted information and implementation of fall prevention programs. Caregivers can encourage, engage, and negotiate with older adults to engage in fall prevention strategies and comply with fall prevention programs. Many older adults are unaware of the behaviors or factors that increase their risk of falling. Therefore, the informal caregivers will discuss with patients about their risk factors for falls, address them using appropriate strategies, and empower patients to implement the fall prevention strategies to reduce their risk of falling.  Encouragement and advice from caregivers influence older adults’ engagement in falls prevention programs. Thus, the informal caregivers will help implement the falls prevention programs by encouraging and empowering their care recipients to participate in falls prevention programs and implement appropriate strategies given their risk factor for falls.  

Healthcare providers are vital in supporting the recommended practice change.  They include occupational and physical therapists, pharmacists, advanced practice nurses, nurses, and physicians. These individuals will conduct the patient’s fall risk assessment and design interventions that reflect the individual patient’s needs. The healthcare providers will also offer an appropriate follow-up to modify the patient’s risk factor for falls.  Lastly, the healthcare administrator will provide the resources to implement the recommended practice change. For instance, informal caregivers and healthcare workers will require training and education to enhance their awareness of the risk factors for falls and their appropriate intervention strategies. According to Oliveira et al.(2017), staff and nurses’ attitudes, behaviors, feelings, and knowledge influences their  implementation of the falls prevention program. Therefore, staff and caregivers’ training and education will enhance their competence in implementing the fall prevention program and assessment of the patient’s risk factors for falls,

Barrier to Implementing Practice Change Recommendation

  According to the World Health Organization, the available evidence should inform healthcare delivery. Mathieson, Grande, & Luker(2019) note that healthcare providers should engage with scientific evidence in their service delivery. However, healthcare providers face significant barriers to evidence-based practice implementation, thus undermining their engagement. These barriers include family commitments, workload, staff shortage, lack of time, negative beliefs about EBP, and limited knowledge of EBP. Thus, the barrier I expect when implementing the practice change recommendation is inadequate knowledge and time.  Increased workload because of staff shortage may be a barrier to evidence-based implementation. Also, a lack of knowledge about the recommended practice change may undermine its implementation. 

 Strategy to Overcome the Identified Barrier

One strategy to overcome the identified barrier is obtaining administration support. The administration will provide significant insights into techniques utilized by other projects to enhance their success despite healthcare providers’ lack of time or limited knowledge about the change in practice (Ginex, 2018).  Additionally, the administration is vital in promoting a culture that embraces evidence-based practice. Additionally, the administration will provide the needed resources to facilitate healthcare workers’ training and education. For instance, they may hire external experts to educate healthcare providers and caregivers on the importance of falls prevention, how to identify risk factors for falls, and effective fall prevention strategies.