Effectiveness of Fall Prevention International Levels - Essay Example

Effectiveness of fall prevention Effectiveness of Fall Prevention in International Levels A fall is sudden intentional change in a position resulting in the individual landing at a lower level, the floor, an object, or on the ground, and is not caused by epileptic seizure, paralysis, or external force. One of the benefits of effective falls prevention at the international level includes the decreased burden on health and social services. Effective falls prevention alleviates a lot of physical injuries including sprains, bruising, head injury, fractures or death.

In 2008/2009 fiscal year, hospital episodes in UK totalling over 400,000 were as a result of falls with 60% of these falls involving people aged above 60 years (Wood et al., 2010). In a year between 700,000 and 1,000,000 people fall in the United States and have to access healthcare and social services through putting a strain on the effective use of resources for research and development in healthcare (Ganz, A., Huang C., Saliba D. et al., 2013). Financing a high number of such falls puts a strain on the health and social services in any country keeping in mind that these costs can be avoided by running effective fall prevention programs.

Another social costs as a result of falling that could be alleviated by effective fall prevention are reducing the fear of falling, admittance to nursing facility, or reduced social and physical activity. These factors have health and social costs and effective fall prevention allows for the social planners and managers to have other services available for the people and improving healthcare that could be used up in provision of healthcare facilities and spaces for treating fall patients. The other benefit of effective fall prevention is the achievement of better standards of living by the community members and patients in healthcare facilities (Registered Nurses of Ontario, 2011).

Effective fall prevention measures allows for reduced sicknesses from falls, reallocation of funds to other areas including education, better nutrition, housing, investment, among other areas from funds that could have facilitated access to treatments for injuries resulting from falls. The main challenge facing the achievement of effective prevention at the international level is the need for an interdisciplinary approach for care delivery for fall prevention. Fall prevention requires the concerted efforts of all individuals involved in care delivery for a patient.

Different multiple disciplines and teams have to come together to provide effective fall prevention since one clinician no matter the extent of his/her talent cannot be in a position to effectively prevent falls. Achieving effective fall prevention operational practices and cultures in organizations have to sustain and promote teamwork, individual expertise, and communication, which is a challenge affecting the achievement of effective fall prevention. It is evident that the achievement of effective fall prevention confers benefits to different stakeholders.

There is a need for the concerted effort especially by governments and healthcare providing centres to take a leading role in ensuring the success in achieving effective fall prevention. The benefits of effective fall prevention include decreasing the burden in health and social costs and achieving access to better standards of living at a fraction of the costs. However, the main challenge noted is the achievement of interdisciplinary care approach for fall prevention is having interdisciplinary approach to care provision.

ReferencesGanz, D., Huang, C., Saliba, D. et al. (2013). Preventing falls in hospitals: a toolkit for improving quality of care. (Prepared by RAND Corporation, Boston University School of Public Health, and ECRI Institute) Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; January 2013. AHRQ Publication. Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. (2011). Prevention of falls and fall injuries in the older adult. Toronto, Ont, Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. Wood, S. Bellis, A.

, Lyons, R., & Macdonald, D. (2010). Falls in older People: A review of evidence for falls prevention.