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Background/objectives To assess nurses' opinions of the efficacy of using the FallTIPS (Tailoring Interventions for Patient Safety) fall prevention program. Design Survey research. Setting Seven adult acute-care hospitals in 2 hospital centers located in Boston and NYC. Participants A total of 298 medical-surgical nurses on 14 randomly selected units. Intervention Three-step FallTIPS fall prevention program that had been in use as a clinical program for a minimum of 2 years in each hospital. Measurements Fall Prevention Efficiency Scale (FPES), range 13-52; four-factorilly derived subscales: valued, efficiency, balances out and inefficiency; and 13 psychometrically validated individual items. Results Nurses perceived the FallTIPS fall prevention program to be efficacious. The FPES mean score of 38.55 (SD = 5.05) and median of 39 were well above the lowest possible score of 13 and scale midpoint of 32.5. Most nurses (N = 270, 90.6%) scored above 33. There were no differences in FPES scores between nurses who had only used FallTIPS and nurses who had previously used a different fall prevention program. Conclusion The nurses who used FallTIPS perceived that efficiencies in patient care compensated for the time spent on FallTIPS. Nurses valued the program and findings confirmed the importance of patient and family engagement with staff in the fall prevention process. Regardless of the fall prevention program used, organizations should examine staff perceptions of their fall prevention program because programs that are not perceived as being useful, efficient, and valuable will lead to nonadherence over time and then will not reduce falls and injuries. The recently developed FPES used in this study is a brief tool available for organizations to assess nurses' perceptions of the efficacy of their fall prevention program. Additional FPES research is needed with larger and more diverse samples.

Falls are a serious, persistent problem in hospitals. Ensuring that all hospital staff have adequate knowledge of how to prevent falls is the first step in prevention. We identified validated fall prevention knowledge tests (FPKTs) and planned to conduct a systematic literature review. When the review identified a lack of FPKTs, we developed and evaluated a FPKT, confirmed its conceptual framework, identified the content domain, drafted test items, devised the format, selected items for empirical examination, and conducted a psychometric evaluation. We randomly divided a 209-subject data set into test and validation samples to make item reduction decisions and examine reliability and validity. The typical respondent was a white, 42-year old female nurse with a bachelor's degree and 7 years' experience. Subjects were confident in their ability to prevent falls, rating themselves an 8 on a self-efficacy scale of 1 (not at all) to 10 (very). The 11-item FPKT scale (range 0-11) attained a tetrachoric coefficient of 0.73, confirming initial reliability. FPKT mean scores obtained before and after fall prevention education improved from 5.1 ± 1.8 to 6.6 ± 1.7. Statistically significant differences (paired t-test = 12.4, p < .001) confirmed validity. A robust way to assess nurses' knowledge of fall prevention is needed to inform effective educational programs. Addressing gaps in validated FPKTs provides an opportunity to inform and evaluate effective fall prevention programs. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:133-138, 2019.

Mobility can be defined as the ability to move or be moved freely and easily. In older adults, mobility impairments are common and associated with risk for additional loss of function. Mobility loss is particularly common in these individuals during acute illness and hospitalization, and it is associated with poor outcomes, including loss of muscle mass and strength, long hospital stays, falls, declines in activities of daily living, decline in community mobility and social participation, and nursing home placement. Thus, mobility loss can have a large effect on an older adult's health, independence, and quality of life. Nevertheless, despite its importance, loss of mobility is not a widely recognized outcome of hospital care, and few hospitals routinely assess mobility and intervene to improve mobility during hospital stays. The Quality and Performance Measurement Committee of the American Geriatrics Society has developed a white paper supporting greater focus on mobility as an outcome for hospitalized older adults. The executive summary presented here focuses on assessing and preventing mobility loss in older adults in the hospital and summarizes the recommendations from that white paper. The full version of the white paper is available as Text S1. J Am Geriatr Soc 67:11-16, 2019.

BackgroundMany hospital systems in the United States report injurious inpatient falls using the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators categories: None, Minor, Moderate, Major, and Death. The Major category is imprecise, including injuries ranging from a wrist fracture to potentially fatal subdural hematoma. The purpose of this project was to refine the Major injury classification to derive a valid and reliable categorization of the types and severities of Major inpatient fall-related injuries.MethodsBased on published literature and ranking of injurious fall incident reports (n = 85) from a large Academic Medical Center, we divided the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators Major category into three subcategories: Major A—injuries that caused temporary functional impairment (eg, wrist fracture), major facial injury without internal injury (eg, nasal bone fracture), or disruption of a surgical wound; Major B—injuries that caused long-term functional impairment or had the potential risk of increased mortality (eg, multiple rib fractures); and Major C—injuries that had a well-established risk of mortality (eg, hip fracture). Based on the literature and expert opinion, our research team reached consensus on an administration manual to promote accurate classification of Major injuries into one of the three subcategories.ResultsThe team tested and validated each of the categories which resulted in excellent interrater reliability (kappa = .96). Of the Major injuries, the distribution of Major A, B, and C was 40.3%, 16.1%, and 43.6%, respectively.ConclusionsThese subcategories enhance the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators categorization. Using the administration manual, trained personnel can classify injurious fall severity with excellent reliability.

Objectives To compare rates and risk factors for early hospital readmission for nursing home residents and community-dwelling older adults. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Geriatric inpatient service at a large urban hospital. Participants Nursing home residents (n = 625) and community-dwelling individuals (n = 413) aged 65 and older admitted over a 1-year period. Measurements Thirty-day readmissions. Results There were 1,706 hospital admissions within the 1-year study period involving 1,038 individuals. The 30-day readmission rate was higher for subjects discharged to a nursing home than those discharged to the community (34.4% vs 22.6%, P

Objectives To examine how often hospitalized older adults with a diagnosis of heel ulcers are evaluated with noninvasive vascular tests and to determine the impact of invasive vascular or surgical procedures on 1-year mortality. Design Retrospective review using an electronic database and chart review of all patients discharged with a diagnosis of heel ulcer between 2006 and 2009. Setting Urban teaching hospital. Participants A total of 506 participants aged 65 years and older. Measurements Data collected included resident characteristics (demographics, medical history, and severity of illness using the Charlson comorbidity index), staging of heel ulcers, rates of noninvasive vascular assessments, vascular and surgical procedures, length of stay, and 1-year mortality. Results Thirty-one percent (155/506) of patients with a heel ulcer underwent noninvasive vascular testing and of these 83% (129/155) were found to have underlying ischemia. Twenty-six percent (130/506) of patients underwent at least 1 vascular or surgical procedure. The 1-year mortality rate for patients with stage 1 or 2 disease was 55%; this rose to 70% for patients with stage 3 or 4 ulcers (P = .01), and could not be explained by differences in the Charlson comorbidity index. Patients who underwent a vascular or surgical procedure had a significantly lower mortality compared with those who did not (59% vs 68% P = .04). Conclusion Older adults with a heel ulcer in the acute care setting are frequently not assessed for underlying ischemia of the lower extremities. The diagnosis carries high 1-year mortality rates. Evidence-based protocols need to be developed to determine which older adults should have a vascular assessment and then undergo an invasive procedure.