Compare the Differences of Nurses' Perceptions of Risk Factors and Effective Preventability for Injurious Falls between Taiwan and USA

Lin, Min-Ling

Purpose:

Fall related injury is one of the most common sources of hospital-acquired injuries worldwide and lots of efforts were made to prevent it. However, nurses’ observations are often missing from fall incident reports. It is necessary to explore the risk factors (RF) for injurious falls and effective preventability (EP) from the nurse’s perspective in different settings and countries.This study described and compared the nurses’ perceptions of RF and their EP for injurious falls between Taiwan and USA.

Methods:

This is a cross-sectional survey study. Dr. Tzeng’s questionnaire and its Chinese version with 2 cultural sensitive items were used to collect data in USA and Taiwan, respectively. Same inclusive criteria were used in these two countries and those who met the inclusion criteria were recruited. The study were conducted in one medical center in Taiwan and 5 health system for adult inpatients in USA. Three groups in perception of RF and PE factors were identified and analyzed using the percentage statistics.

Results:

Twenty-seven and 28 risk factors were identified as high frequency groups of RF in USA and Taiwan, respectively. Among them, 12 factors (44.4%) were found in Taiwan and USA and most of them were biological factors. Twenty-seven and 28 risk factors were identified as high EP groups in USA and Taiwan, respectively. Among them, 2 factors (7.4%) were found in Taiwan and USA. USA most of them were biological factors (51.85%), but Taiwan more of them were environmental risk factors (35.71%) and biological factors.

Conclusion:

This study described the status and the differences of the nurses’ perceptions of RF and their EP for injurious falls between Taiwan and USA. The influences of cultural (ex: care-giver accompany), in-service education of fall (biological or environmental oriented) and health care system (ex: nurse staffing) on the frequency of RF and their EP for injurious falls were discussed and several suggestions were also proposed.