Abstract
Objective
Patient falls in the healthcare settings are unwanted events that can have severe consequences for both inpatients and outpatients; however, falls are preventable and nurses play an important role in this prevention. The purpose of this study was to investigate nurse activities in fall prevention and its relevant factors.
Methods
This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Can Tho Central General Hospital, with the participation of 90 nurses. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire consisting of five parts, including personal characteristics, knowledge about fall prevention, self-efficacy in fall prevention, nursing practice environment, and fall prevention activities. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 18.0 software with descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation coefficients.
Results
The mean score of participants’ knowledge in fall prevention was 4.67 (SD = 2.50) out of 11 scores; the self-efficacy score was 49.43 (SD = 8.55) out of 66 scores; nursing practice environment score was 29.69 (SD = 4.00) out of 40 scores; and the fall prevention activity scores were 75.58 (SD = 9.96) out of 100 scores. Factors related to fall prevention activities included gender (p = 0.03), place of work (p = 0.02), number of fall prevention training sessions (p = 0.03), self-efficacy in fall prevention (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), and the nursing practice environment (r = 0.25, p < 0.05).
Conclusions
An intervention program for fall prevention can be implemented to enhance the knowledge about fall prevention among nurses and improve the nursing practice environment to enhance patient safety.