• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.101-106
• /
• 2019

In this paper, we investigate the patient fall prevention system to prevent the patient from falling out of the bed unintentionally on the bed of the bed. Patients stay in bed for many hours of hospitalization. During the hospitalization period, patients have low controllability of the body, as compared with normal persons, and fall due to intentional movements, resulting in a fall of the patient, can be a fatal threat to the patient. Therefore, an efficient fall prevention system is required. In this paper, the distance map to the patient is generated by the distance measuring sensor on the bed of the patient, and the risk is determined by estimating the position of the patient based on the distance map. As a result, when the distance map of the dangerous area is 150 mm or more, it is determined to be dangerous, and good results are obtained.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.107-120
• /
• 2009

Background : To estimate fall incidence rate and associated factors in inpatients from a general hospital. Method : The data were collected from 104 fall incident reports developed by the patient safety committee in a general hospital in Seoul from 01 January 2007 to 31 December 2008. Information included general characteristics of patients, factors related to fall, types, places, circumstances and outcomes of fall. Result : The incidence rate of fall, which was 4.4 per 1,000 total discharged patients and 0.5 per 1,000 patient-days, was much lower than that of several hospitals in the United States. The difference may reflect the different incidence reporting system of each hospital. Fall-prone patients were, in general, $$\geq_-$$65 years of age, had an alert mental status, were ambulatory with some assistance, and were dependent on and ambulatory device. High incidence of falls was associated with patients with circulatory disease. The majority of fall events usually occurred in bed or at the bedside in the patient's room, and occurred more often during the night than during the day or evening. Risk factors of fall were use of drugs (antihypertensive or neuropsychiatric drugs) and environmental factors (e.g., overly high bed height, surrounding objects, inadequate fitness shoes and slippery floor). Physical injury occurred in 43.3% of fall events, which typically required diagnosis of injury and treatment such as suturing. Risk factors for repeated falls were use of a neuropsychiatric drug (odds ratio=13.9) and gait disturbance (odds ratio=91.2). Risk factors for fall-related injury were alert mental status (odds ratio=3.3 times more likely to fall than those who were drowsy or in a stupor) and general weakness(odds ratio=3.3 times more likely to fall than those who were not generally weak). Conclusion : Medical and nursing staff should be aware of the fall risk factors of hospitalized patients and should intensively pursue preventative strategies. Development of fall prevention education based on these results is recommended.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.157-166
• /
• 2022

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify factors influencing fall-prevention behaviors of nurses working in long-term care hospitals. Methods: Participants included 147 nurses working in 10 long-term care hospitals in B city. Data were collected from September 20-October 12, 2016. SPSS/WIN 21.0 was used for analysis with t-test, ANOVA, Scheffé test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. Results: It was found that attitude toward fall (r=.29, p<.001) and patient safety culture (r=.25, p=.002) had a significant positive correlation with fall-prevention behaviors of nurses working in long-term care hospitals. The factors influencing fall-prevention behaviors in participants were clinical career and patient safety culture (β=.21, p=.012), contributing to 19% of the total variance in fall- prevention behaviors. Conclusion: The findings showed that systematic delivery of differentiated fall prevention education is preferred to nurse's clinical career as a private factor to improve fall-prevention behaviors of nurses in long term care hospital. Particularly, it is imperative to conduct periodical and practical fall-prevention education for nurses to prevent career discontinuity. An independent report system and open communication system as well as a scheme that can disseminate patient safety culture in individual departments to implement patient direct nursing are required to encourage patient safety culture in organizations.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.9 no.4
• /
• pp.559-569
• /
• 2003

Purpose: The purpose was to investigate nurse staffing levels and patient outcomes(nosocomial infection, patient fall, pressure ulcer). Method: The subjects of this study were 305 nurses from 20 general hospitals who worked at 39 medical and surgical wards. Self-reporting questionnaire which was developed by the writer through preceding study was used. In data analysis, SPSS WIN 10.0. program was utilized for descriptive statistics, ANOVA. Result: The mean of patient-to-nurse ration was 5.2:1. 65% among 20 hospitals was over 300 beds, 90 was located in urban area and 55 was private hospitals. Patient-to-nurse ration of hospitals in under 300 beds or rural area or private ownership was lower than hospitals in 300 beds or urban area or public ownership. 89.9 among 39 wards was medical or surgical wards. The mean of length of stay, 8-14 days got a majority and showed higher patient-to-nurse ration. Of the general characteristics, rural was significantly hight to patient fall(F=3.205, p<.05), medical unit was significantly high to patient fall, pressure ulcer(patient fall: F=8.890, p<.001, pressure ulcer: F=3.399, p<.05) and over 15 days was significantly higher than under 14 days of the mean of length of stay. And there was significant relationship between over 6.0:1 and over 4.0:1 to less than 5.0:1(F=4.817,p<.01). Conclusion: This study has shown a relationship between patient-to-nurse ration and patient fall using not objective research tool but self-reporting questionnaire. Therefore further research is needed to study using objective research tool. Based on this study, the effect of nurse staffing levels on patient outcome also has to be studied.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
• /
• v.49 no.2
• /
• pp.203-214
• /
• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study to develop a fringed fall prevention program based on King's goal attainment theory and education. This study is applied to the personal, interpersonal, and social systems of fall high-risk patients to test its effects. Methods: This study was a nonequivalent control group pre- and post-test design. There were 52 fall high-risk patients in the experimental group and 45 in the control group. The experimental group received six sessions, with the group sessions lasting 60 minutes and the individual sessions lasting 20~30 minutes. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, an ${\chi}^2-test$, a paired sample t-test, and a Wilcoxon signed-ranks test utilizing IBM SPSS software. Results: For the 3-month intervention period, the fall prevention program was found to be particularly effective for patients in the experimental group (from 3.38 to 1.69 per 1000 patient days; p=.044), as opposed to the control group (from 1.94 to 1.49 per 1000 patient days; p=.300). For the 6-month follow up period, the fall prevention program was again found to be effective for patients in the experimental group (from 3.26 to 0.76 per 1000 patient days; p=.049) compared to the control group (from 1.98 to 1.01 per 1000 patient days; p=.368). Conclusion: These results indicate that the fringed fall prevention program is very effective in reducing falls, not only during the intervention period, but also after the intervention period has ended. We can therefore recommend this program for use concerning fall high-risk patients in long-term care hospitals.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.394-403
• /
• 2013

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify self-leadership and attitude to patient falls and fall prevention behavior in nurses. Methods: The participants were 178 nurses from two general hospitals in Seoul. Data were collected from March 20 to May 10, 2012 using structured questionnaires which included a Self-leadership scale, Fall attitude scale, and Fall prevention scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and Hierarchial multiple regression with the SPSS/WIN 20.0 program. Results: The mean score for nurses' self-leadership was 3.48 (5 point scale). The average reported fall attitude was 3.59 (5 point scale) and fall prevention behavior was 3.26 (4 point scale). Self-leadership had a 18% explanatory power in fall attitude and a 5% explanatory power in fall prevention behavior. The factors which influenced fall prevention behavior were nurses' fall attitude (${\beta}$=.21, p=.009), fall prevention education (${\beta}$=.20, p=.007) and self-leadership (${\beta}$=.16, p=.047). All of the factors together had a 13.1% explanatory power. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that provision of regularly fall prevention education to nurses is required and should include a program to activate their positive attitude and self-leadership in order to improve fall prevention behavior in nurses.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.269-281
• /
• 2018

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to build a model to predict the fall prevention behavior of nurses in small and medium sized hospitals. Methods: Participants were 382 nurses from 13 hospitals who responded to the structured self-reported questionnaire. The research model was based on previous study of fall prevention, theory of planned behavior, and the health belief model. Results: The modified model generally showed higher levels than recommended level of model fit indices and acceptable explanation. Of 17 hypothetical paths, 14 were supported. Predicting variables explained 51.6% of fall prevention behavior. The fall prevention behavior of nurses showed a direct influence of fall prevention expectations, fall prevent threats, perceived behavioral control for fall prevention, and intention to prevent falls and an indirect of influence of patient safety culture, attitude toward fall prevention, and the subjective norm. Conclusion: Findings show a need to identify a range of barrier factors to increase the benefits of fall prevention behavior and enhance the perceived control of fall prevention so that nurses will be able to promote fall prevention behavior in hospitals. Also, it is critical to increase awareness of patient safety culture among nurses.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.210-228
• /
• 2002

Background: The purpose of this research was to examine the fall incidence rate and its related factors of fall in inpatients. Methods: The data were collected from the 138 fall incident reports in one tertiary hospital in Seoul from April 1st 1999 to September 30th 2001. The Fall Incident Report Form was originally developed based on that of Massachusetts General Hospital revised in 1995. And this was modified for this survey by the collaborating work of QI team including researcher and department of nursing service of this particular hospital. The contents of Fall Incident Form were general characteristics of patient. factors related to fall. types and places of fall. circumstances, nursing interventions. and outcome. Results: 1) The incidence rate of fall was 0.08% of total discharged patients and 0.081 per 1000 patient-day. This incidence rate is much lower than that of several hospitals in USA. This finding might result from the different incidence report system of each hospital. 2) The characteristics of fall-prone patient were found as follows. They were mostly over 60 years old, in alert mental status, ambulatory with some assistance, and dependent on ambulatory device. The types of diseases related high incidence rate were cerebrovascular disease(3.2), hypertension(1.6), cardiovascular disease(1.4), diabetes(1.3) and liver disease(0.6). 3) The majority of fall events usually occurred m bed. bedside(walking or standing) and bathroom in patient room. Usually they were up on their own when they fell. And there were more falls of elderly occurred during night time than day or evening. 4) 63.8% of fall events resulted in physical injuries such as fracture and usually the patients had diagnostic procedures and some treatment(ex. suture) which caused additional cost to the patients and their families. 5) The found risk factors of fall were drugs(antihypertensive drug, diuretics) and environmental factors like too high bed height, long distance of bedside table and lamp switch, and slippery tile of bathroom floor. Conclusion: Considering these results, every medical and nursing staff should be aware of the risk factors of patients in hospital, and should intervene more actively the preventive managements, specially for the elderly patients during night. Therefore, it is recommended that the development of Fall Prevention Programs based on these results.

• Journal of The Korea Institute of Healthcare Architecture
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.61-70
• /
• 2021

Purpose: The study aims at identifying patient-related and environmental factors associated with an increased risk of falling and, therefore, both caregivers and designers can be aware of fall risk factors and can contribute to prevent inpatient falls in their own areas of expertise. Methods: A case-control study has been conducted, utilizing patient data and physical environmental data in the unit of General Medicine in the United States. The case-control study investigated data about patients who had suffered falls as well as patients with similar characteristics (e.g., age, gender, and diagnosis) who did not suffer falls. Results: The study identified both patient-related and physical environmental factors associated with inpatient falls. Morse fall risk score, patient visibility, and patient accessibilityB were identified as significant predictors to inpatient falls, when controlling for other significant variables. Implications: The findings of the study can provide implications to both caregivers and healthcare and hospital environment designers. Caregivers should give special attention to patients with high Morse Fall Risk Scores to prevent inpatient falls. Designers also need to examine and to fine-tune the unit layout of inpatient care units to maximize each patient room's patient visibility from the rest of the unit and patient accessibilityB from working areas of nurses.

• Journal of Korean Public Health Nursing
• /
• v.33 no.2
• /
• pp.200-213
• /
• 2019

Purpose: This study was conducted to examine the effect of a fall prevention education on the fall related knowledge and fall prevention behavior of the elderly patients in comprehensive nursing care service wards. Method: A quasi experimental study with control group and experimental group was used. A total 62 elderly patients in comprehensive nursing care service wards were randomly divided into the experimental group(n=30) and the control group(n=32). The data collection period was from August to December, 2017. Data were analyzed with $X^2-test$, paired t-test, independent t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient by using SPSS 25.0. Results: Experimental group reported higher score in fall related knowledge than the control group(t=-10.28, p<.001). Participants who viewed DVD and received the leaflet education reported higher score than those with routine admission education(t=-6.51, p<.001). The experimental group showed significant improvement in fall related knowledge and fall prevention behavior(r=.21, p=.015). Conclusion: The fall prevention program was effective in improving fall-related knowledge and fall prevention behavior among elderly patients. Since the DVD plus leaflet education was effective in improving prevention behaviors, it might be included in routine orientation on admission for the elderly patient in comprehensive nursing care service wards.