Identification of Problem
Across the country, many cases of home falls are reported daily. Yearly, thousands of aged persons fall while at home. Falls commonly happen owing to preventable hazards. There is a need to prevent the falls.
The majority of our aged patients are weak. They are unsteady when walking. Most of them are on medications that make them dizzy or sleepy and markedly unsteady when walking. When discharged, the patients are highly likely to suffer falls when within their homes.
Investigation
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006), at least 12,800 persons passed on and over 1.6 million were taken to emergency departments after falling in 2002. Many of them got grave injuries and others become disabled. The hazards that led to the falls were preventable in most of the cases.
Falls and the associated complications cause many deaths among the aged persons annually. At least a third of all the grow ups who fall each year are at least 65. Of all the injury cases that hospitals attend to, 85% result from falls (Woolcott, Richardson, Wiens, Patel, Marin & Khan, 2009). According to Woolcott, Richardson, Wiens, Patel, Marin and Khan (2009), most of the falls happen when aged patients are on sleep-inducing medications. Falls stemming from medications are many but underreported (Pelt, 2012).
Analysis of Situation
Various areas contribute to the inordinately high numbers of aged persons who suffer falls. For each fall, several underlying risk factors or causes are involved. The causes increase persons’ susceptibility to falls. The National Institutes of Health (2015) reports that many aged persons fall when they suffer postural hypotension, which results from particular medications or dehydration. It is common in aged persons taking medications to manage their Parkinson’s disease or diabetes conditions. When the persons suffer postural hypotension, they feel sleepy or dizzy, thus being at a high risk of falling.
Various medications heighten a person’s probability of falling since they occasion not only dizziness but also confusion. Notably, a typical aged person takes more drugs than a younger person. The more the drugs that one uses; the higher his or her chances of falling. The usage of multiple drugs by aged persons concurrently put them at a high risk of falling according to the national institutes of health (2015).
Woolcott, Richardson, Wiens, Patel, Marin and Khan (2009) explain that healthcare practitioners ignore the significance of drugs as a leading risk factor for falls. Medications have unintended effects which increase one’s chances of falling. Over three quarters of aged grown ups take at least one prescription drug. About a quarter of all aged grownups take at least five prescription medications regularly as demonstrated by Clark (2008). Regardless of the actuality that some of the effects of the medications that aged persons take make them fall, there has been no concerted effort aimed at preventing the medication-related falls according to Woolcott, Richardson, Wiens, Patel, Marin and Khan (2009).
Woolcott, Richardson, Wiens, Patel, Marin and Khan (2009) advise that healthcare practitioners, especially the ones who offer care to the aged, be well versed with the medication that place them at a marked risk of falling. They should be keen on the medications that their patients take, while at the hospital and at home. Some of the practitioners have or follow inappropriate prescribing protocols and practices when dealing with aged persons as well as other patients (Pelt, 2012).
Proposed Solution
From the above analysis, it is clear that medication-related falls among the elderly while at home can be prevented. I propose that the problem of the falls be solved through offering elderly patients who at a heightened danger of falling and their families medication education. The solution requires the integration of nursing, social work, and pharmaceutical competencies. The solution will be focused on at-home drug management. The solution will involve educating the patients and their families on the categories of drugs that place persons at heightened risks of falling. The patients and families should learn the drugs in the categories so that they can take caution when using or allowing for their usage.
The following handout will be printed and issued to the patients and their families when the former are being discharged from hospital. The handout contains information that is relevant to forestalling the occurrence of falls at home. The information will be explained at lengthy to the families and the patients prior to leaving the hospital.
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