NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1
[Student Name]
Capella University
Professor’s Name
August 2025
NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1: Enhancing Quality and Safety
The number of falls experienced by patients in a healthcare establishment is a major safety issue, particularly to the most vulnerable group of patients; the older adults. Effective preventive measures are necessary in enhancing patient outcomes and cutting healthcare expenses incurred. Nurses also play a central role in the organization of the fall prevention program and the collaboration with other medical workers to carry out evidence-based practices. NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1 will discuss the contributing problems of patient fall, what can be done to prevent them and how nurses can contribute to patient safety reduction and cut down costs.
Factors Leading to Patient Fall
There are numerous risks that lead to patient falls in care environments, and such risks are both intrinsic and environmental. In relation to safety and quality, several intrinsic factors that predispose patients to falls include advanced age, cognitive disorders, and chronic illnesses. Others such as older adults have difficulties in sustaining their balance and coordination, thus becoming prone to falls (Ainani & Irwan, 2024). Also, the medications which produce dizziness or hypotension, e.g., sedatives or antihypertensives might increase the likelihood of falls because of the effects they exert on the stability of patients (Ainani & Irwan, 2024). In addition, a greater risk of falls is caused by environmental risk factors, such as wet floors, poor lighting, and bed height adjustment (Ainani & Irwan, 2024).
The presence of falls is also largely dependent on hospital factors. Regarding the concept of quality and patient safety, it is caused by low staffing levels, inadequate observation of the patient, long queues in waiting rooms, and incorrect assessments, all of which contribute to falling risks (Najafpour et al., 2019). The risk can also increase due to the absence of
communication among the health care staff or insufficient teaching on the prevention of falls as it is noted in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1. Patients must also move to new positions under comparatively new conditions in the hospital, which can introduce various physical obstacles to their movements or transfer them without proper support, exposing them to the risk of falls, as discussed in quality and safety education for nurses (Najafpour et al., 2019). All of this makes it evident in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1 that there is a necessity and a demand to prevent the fall-related conditions that emerge as a result of both personal and environmental factors in medical institutions.
Evidence-Based and Best-Practice Solutions
Several evidence- based best practices and intervention programs were developed and implemented in the hospital environment with a singular purpose of reducing the number of patients falls effectively, consequentially increasing the number of safety and quality, and the reduction of the cost of healthcare delivery. The systematization of the individualized risk assessment of falls of each patient upon admission to their treatment and observation is one of the ways to overcome the situation. It involves examining other aspects like the ability to move, thinking capability, the use of prescriptions, and the rate of prior falls, and this makes it possible to customize necessary preventive measures (LeLaurin & Shorr, 2019). By predicting high-risk patients early on, the hospitals can intervene to change high-risk patient factors, including closer supervision, adapting medications, and use of assistive devices, which supports quality and patient safety and was found to have reduced the incidence of falls by a lot (Morris et al., 2022).
Another effective approach highlighted in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1 is the multidisciplinary fall prevention team, which brings together healthcare workers from diverse fields, including nurses, physical therapists, and pharmacists. These teams are able to work
together to offer a comprehensive care plan that will involve not only environmental changes, but staff education and patient-specific interventions. To illustrate, providing patients with access to call bells, a dry floor, and bed alarms may help prevent patients falling (Turner et al., 2020). As systematic reviews indicate, interventions that involve a combination of education of patients, training of staff, and environmental interventions are most effective in establishing lower rates of falls (Morris et al., 2022).
They can also adopt standardized protocols and ongoing training of their staff on fall prevention, which will allow them to be consistent in the units within the hospital and support quality and safety in nursing. The research has demonstrated that when standardized fall prevention practices are implemented in several units within hospitals, fewer falls and reduced healthcare expenses have more fall-related illnesses since the greatest fall-related costs are unnecessary hospital readmissions (Turner et al., 2020). Real-time fall risk assessment and intervention with the integration of electronic health records (EHR) can also streamline monitoring and response strategies to improve patient safety and decrease the overall costs of long-term care in the long-term (LeLaurin & Shorr, 2019). By prioritizing the described evidence-based solutions, as emphasized in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1, the hospitals will promote patient safety and minimize the economic cost of patient falls.
Nurse Coordination
Nurses have a significant role in orchestrating care to decrease expenses and increase patient safety in the area of falls. Among the most prominent examples of assistance nurses can provide, it is possible to mention leading fall prevention programs among the older adults. Ojo and Thiamwong (2022) underscore the idea that proactive interventions such as nurse-led programs encompassing the assessment of the risk of falls, instruction on managing risks, and
custom care plans decrease the risk of falls among elderly people by a considerable margin. “Nurses can be well placed to monitor mobility, cognitive performance, and other risk profiles of patients and ensure that any follow-up, such as a change in medications or referrals to a physical therapist, materializes promptly, as emphasized in quality and safety education for nurses. They minimize the cost of treating fall-related injuries, absence, and delay of rehabilitation by ensuring patient safety through fall prevention, as highlighted in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1, since patients often develop injuries that are costly to treat. Moreover, nurses may streamline multidisciplinary communication, and provide consistency between different fall prevention practices across multidisciplinary teams. As the coordinators between patients, their families, and other healthcare providers, nurses can make sure there is adequate communication of fall risk factors and that each team member is aware of certain patient-specific needs. As an example, nurses can organize the use of assistive devices, environmental changes, and training of the staff on the basis of regular patient evaluations and updates (Turner et al., 2020). This multidisciplinary practice, as discussed in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1, reduces mistakes and improves patient outcomes, thereby lowering healthcare expenses related to falls and fall-related complications.
Stakeholders to Coordinate with Nurses
Nurses will play a central role in the coordination of care with other stakeholders aimed at enhancing safety and quality and minimizing the falls of patients. A prominent stakeholder group will be physicians who can offer critical medical supervision and prescribe related treatments and correct medications that can influence the risk of falls. Nurses make cooperation with physicians whereby high-risk patients receive early identification and the adjustment of the treatment plan. To illustrate, patients who take a medicine with dizziness or hypotensive effects would be subject to scrutiny and in the event of a revised regimen, it should be advised ASAP
(Ojo & Thiamwong, 2022). Nurse and physician collaboration will assure the development and implementation of comprehensive and individualized care plans which is essential in prevention of falls.
Physical therapists (PTs) are another crucial area of stakeholders, as they are fundamental in determining and enhancing the mobility of patients, as emphasized in quality and safety education for nurses. Nurses collaborate with PTs to develop individually-tailored rehabilitation programs to strengthen their patients and improve their balance and coordination skills to reduce falls. The frequent physical gait evaluation of a patient by PT, as emphasized in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1, can guide nurses on the need to provide additional strategies to overcome impaired gait, including mobility aids and supporting devices (Turner et al., 2020). Environmental services staff is also instrumental in ensuring the hospital environment is safe through proper lighting, non-slip floors, and maintaining secure bed height, supporting quality and safety in nursing. The criterion is a cross-sectional communication between safety, PTs, and nurses that protect against a fall and patient safety.
Conclusion
On the whole, patient falls represent a compelling hazard in the hospitals, and, under the collective efforts of healthcare personnel, it can be seen that spectacular improvements can be achieved in general health terms of safety and cost-effectiveness. It is important that nurses take a leading role in initiating a fall prevention program, screening high-risk patients, and seeking medical consultation from physicians, physical therapists, and environmental services so that critical action can be taken, supporting quality and patient safety. To avert the occurrence of fall incidents, the healthcare environment can employ evidence-based practices and introduce teamwork, as highlighted in NURS FPX 4035 Assessment 1, since these approaches are associated with improved patient care and reduced financial burdens on the health system.
Ainani, N., & Irwan, A. M. (2024). Factors associated with patient falls in hospitals: A scoping review. Journal of Integrative Nursing, 6(2), 117-126. https://doi.org/10.4103/jin.jin_133_23
LeLaurin, J. H., & Shorr, R. I. (2019). Preventing falls in hospitalized patients. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 35(2), 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cger.2019.01.007
Morris, M. E., Webster, K., Jones, C., Hill, A. M., Haines, T., McPhail, S., … & Cameron, I. (2022). Interventions to reduce falls in hospitals: A systematic review and meta- analysis. Age and Ageing, 51(5), afac077. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac077
Najafpour, Z., Godarzi, Z., Arab, M., & Yaseri, M. (2019). Risk factors for falls in hospital in- patients: A prospective nested case-control study. International Journal of Health Policy and Management, 8(5), 300-306. https://doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2019.11
Ojo, E. O., & Thiamwong, L. (2022). Effects of nurse-led fall prevention programs for older adults: a systematic review. Pacific Rim international journal of nursing research, 26(3),417. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36051891/
Turner, K., Staggs, V. https://doi.org/10.1093/ageing/afac077 S., Potter, C., Cramer, E., Shorr, R. I., & Mion, L. C. (2020). Fall prevention practices and implementation strategies: Examining consistency across hospital units. Journal of Patient Safety, 18(1), e236-e242. https://doi.org/10.1097/pts.0000000000000758
