Background: According to the American Geriatric Society, falls are a leading cause of serious injuries in older adults that can lead to hospitalization, nursing home admission, and even death. Falling is an even more frequent occurance among ambulatory residents of long-term care facilities than among older persons residing in the community. About half of ambulatory long-term care residents experience at least one fall each year. Foreground: Nursing Homes residents at both local and national level experience varying degrees of fall episodes. Though each facility follows standard guidelines set by the state, the total number and severity of falls and fall-related injuries does vary. All of these facilities are expected to implement annual in servicing of staff on fall prevention. Clinical Question: Does an Evidence-based education program on fall prevention, demonstrate increased knowledge gained and retained, by nursing staff in a Long Term Care (LTC) environment, resulting in reduced patient fall ratios. EBP Framework: Lewin’s change theory was the guiding framework for this project. The Clincial Scholar Model (CSM) guides the activation and dissemintation of practice innovations, while collaborating with other members in an interdisciplinary approach. Objective: The purpose of this paper is identified in the following PICOT format; Population: Nursing staff caring for Nursing Home residents. Implementation: an educational EBP intervention of fall prevention. Comparison: Evaluating patient fall ratios, and nursing knowledge pre and post educational in-service. Outcomes: Demonstrate improved fall ratios. Time: Over 1 month in a long-term care setting. Outcomes: The presentation of an educational format the nursing staff find easy to understand and thus remember and retain key curriculum as identified by a brief questionnaire, prior to an following the in-service. The facility documentation of a decrease in the ratio of falls over 1 month following the education on Fall Prevention to the nursing staff, compared to the prior month. Findings/Results: Forty-three nursing staff participated. The survey results showed an improvement in knowledge following the in-service, two of the test results scored lower following the in-service. Nursing home resident falls, decreased by 50%. Conclusions/Recommendations: Continuation of staff in-servicing is important to improve patient care outcomes. It is important to provide the teaching material in a brief and simplified format that is easy for all members of the nursing staff to understand.
