For this first week’s discussion board, I have chosen a quality improvement article.

Module 1 Discussion:

For this first week’s discussion board, I have chosen a quality improvement article. The article’s title is, “Using a Fall Prevention Checklist to Reduce Hospital Falls: Results of a Quality Improvement Project”. The authors of this article are Madeline Johnston, BSN, RN, OCN, and Morris A. Magnan, Ph.D., RN. These authors serve as a nurse educator and clinical nurse specialist at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, respectively. The type of study presented in this article is a quality improvement study.

The purpose of this quality improvement study was to focus on and improve patient safety by promoting adherence to inpatient fall risk protocol (Johnston & Magnan, 2019). According to The Joint Commission, lack of adherence to safety protocols is a common element leading to patient injury and falls while hospitalized. In this study, the hospital’s quality improvement team implemented a 14-item checklist based on the hospital’s fall risk protocol already in place. The checklist was comprised of 14 nursing fall prevention interventions, all part of the hospital-approved fall risk protocol. Falls were tracked daily during the 26-day study period to determine this new checklist’s impact on patient safety.

I believe this is a quality improvement study as the initiative focused on improving nursing adherence to the pre-existing and hospital-approved fall risk protocol. By implementing the use of the 14-item checklist, staff was able to promote and enhance patient safety by identifying any fall risk interventions that may have been missed. Decreasing patient falls can also prevent sentinel events, out-of-pocket costs, and longer hospital stays.

Reference

Johnston, M., & Magnan, M. A. (2019). Using a Fall Prevention Checklist to Reduce Hospital Falls: Results of a Quality Improvement Project. American Journal of Nursing, 119(3), 43-49. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NAJ.0000554037.76120.6a