Authors

Olga Buergo García

Position

Enfermera. Complejo Asistencial de Soria.

Contact address

Olga Buergo García. C/ Santa Teresa de Jesús, 4, 1 D. 42003 Soria.

Contact email: olgabuer@hotmail.com

Abstract

Objective: to explore the risk of falls and injury in patients admitted at a Geriatric Unit.
Materials and method: transversal descriptive observational study. 309 episodes were analyzed. The variables studied were: age and gender, length of stay, patient assessment, patients with diagnosis of “Risk of falls” and “Risk of traumatism”, risk factors, planned activities, and occurrence of falls (time, place, circumstances and consequences of the fall). The HP-HIS program for admission or bed management or waiting list, and the GACELA Program, were used as data collection tools.
Results: “Risk of Falls” appeared on 17.1%, and “Risk of Injury” on 34.6%. Cognitive and emotional difficulties were the higher factor identified for risk of falls and injury (34.6%), followed by physical factors such as weakness (19.4%) and mobility impairment (17.1%). The nursing activity most highly recorded was “providing walking aids (canes or support bars) in order to achieve a stable ambulation” (81.9%). There was a 2.3% incidence of falls.
Conclusions: all patients in the study were assessed at admission according to the Virginia Henderson’s Need Theory, but a specific assessment scale for risk of falls was not applied to any of them. To conduct an adequate patient assessment is essential in order to know their risk factors, and using an assessment scale for risk of falls at admission will facilitate the identification of these factors.

Keywords:

Risk of falls; risk of injury; prevention; falls; elderly person; Geriatrics; researchdescriptive study

Versión en Español

Título:

Riesgo de traumatismo y riesgo de caídas en una Unidad de Geriatría