NA: Fall Risk Assessment and Prevention
Presented by Erin Vigne
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According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), approximately half of the 1.6 million nursing home residents in the United States fall each year. These falls may result in resident injury or death, additional burdens for caregivers, and increased costs. This course will describe the vicious cycle common in many long-term care facilities that leads to more falls, review the most common reasons for falls, teach nursing assistants how they can assess fall risk, and equip nursing assistants with practical approaches they can use to help decrease resident falls in long-term care facilities.
Meet your instructor
Erin Vigne
Erin Vigne, RN, MA, is a registered nurse, gerontologist, and certified health coach who has worked as an intervention nurse and research coordinator for the University of Maryland School of Nursing since 2011. As an intervention nurse working on a variety NIH-funded studies, she has worked in nursing homes and assisted…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. Case Study and Overview
This chapter will introduce a case study that will be used as a learning tool during the course, explain the importance of fall prevention, and introduce the learning objectives and agenda for the remainder of the course.
2. Why Do Residents Fall?
This chapter will review the many reasons why older adults fall, including medication use, environmental hazards, cognitive impairment, chronic disease, and decreased balance and lower-body strength. It will also describe how falls in long-term care facilities often lead to additional falls because of the approaches that well-meaning staff take to “protect” residents and avoid more falls. Students will be asked to identify the fall risk factors of the person in the case study and will discuss ways to address these risks.
3. Practical Approaches to Reducing Fall Risk
This chapter will begin with a demonstration of how not to respond when a resident who is a high fall risk wants to walk independently. The chapter will then discuss practical strategies that the CNA can use to help decrease fall risk of residents, including tips for communicating with residents about reducing their risk of falling. The chapter will conclude with a demonstration of a better way to respond to a resident who wants to walk independently, as well as ways CNAs can positively respond to statements commonly made by long-term care residents about falling and exercise.
