Safety In Home Care Essay

Improved Essays
In Home Care and Safety Concerns

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the primary indicator of whether a person will add nearly 20 years to their life after reaching age 65 is their ability to make healthy lifestyle choices. Statistically, it does not matter if there are chronic conditions, diseases, or health concerns. Longevity is based upon the effective management of chronic conditions if they are present, or the prevention of them if they have not yet manifest.

According to Dr. Jeanne Wei, the executive director of the Reynolds Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the secret lies in regular physical activity, eating a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking. Dr. Wei says that seniors who cannot accomplish these tasks on their own should get help doing so. From nutritionists and geriatricians to in home care personnel, help is available. The key is to get it sooner instead of later.

By not taking care of their bodies through diet and exercise or getting the help that they need to do so, seniors open themselves up to a host of safety concerns. Among them are:
…show more content…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that there are over 2.5 million seniors being treated for falls in emergency rooms annually, with over 700,000 of them resulting in hospitalization. Fall risk increases each year seniors age over 65, and the risk in compounded by problems with eyesight, mobility, dementia, or any disorder that impacts muscles or balance. In other words, falls are a great concern for most American seniors. Regardless of the condition that leads to an increased fall risk, in home care personnel can help keep your loved one safe by conducting a fall risk analysis of the home, helping improve the safety of the residence, and providing the physical and emotional support needed to strengthen muscles, improve balance, and lessen the risk of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Although multifactorial fall risk assessment and management programs seem to be a reasonable and appealing approach for preventing falls and fall related injuries in the elderly, it is not backed by strong evidence. Present evidence implies that it may decrease the number of falls in the elderly by only a minimal amount. Evidence of its effects on other outcomes as in the rate of falls and injuries is inadequate. Rigorous interventions that provide actions to address risk factors rather than evidence with referrals could be more effective.…

    • 87 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Summary of Article “Fall Prevention in Acute Care Hospitals” The purpose of this study was to determine if a fall prevention tool kit would decrease patient falls within a hospital using health information technology. The study used both quantitative and qualitative data. The Morse Fall Scale was the tool used, and it provides scores that range from (0-125 points) based off of six focal points. The focal points included recent fall history (25 points), presence of secondary diagnosis (15 points), need for ambulatory aid (0-30 points), receiving IV therapy (20 points), gait characteristics (0-20 points) and imparted mental status (15 points) (Dykes, Carroll, Hurley 2010).…

    • 239 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As of year 2015, there were 120 residents in Kamehameha Nursing Home who suffered physical injuries because of falls. This is an alarming rate as the number of falls tremendously increased. Because of the alarming increased rate of fall in Kamehameha Nursing Home, needs assessments were conducted to identify risk factors and ways to address it. The aims of the needs assessment were: a. Determining the causes of falls…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What if hospitals begin turning away patients that have a high risk for fall? The high risk would include the elderly, especially Alzheimer’s, stroke patients who have balance problems, or the ones that are taking certain medications that could affect them physically. As part of the health care team, all patients are welcome and should not be turned away due to high risk for…

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Acute Rehab Case Study

    • 1526 Words
    • 6 Pages

    How Study to be Conducted This study will focus on protecting patients from fall and fall-related injuries after stroke in an Acute Rehab Unit. At first it would identify the patients who are at great risk of fall currently and after going back to the community. The Morse Fall Risk Assessment (MFA) tool will be used to initially identify fall risk patients in the unit. CDC’s Injury Center has created a tool kit, called STEADI (Stopping Elderly Accidents Deaths and Injuries).…

    • 1526 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Hourly Rounding Essay

    • 1419 Words
    • 6 Pages

    INTRODUCTION Inpatient falls is one of the most devastating problems in the acute care settings. It has estimated that one-third of adult patients, age 65 years and older fall and the injuries related to falls increase with age (Abraham, 2011). Falls not only cause physical harm, but can have lasting psychological consequences for the patient, such as decreased quality of life. Furthermore, Medicare stopped paying reimbursements to hospitals for treating fall-related complications. Improved monitoring by staff is one of the nursing intervention to prevent falls.…

    • 1419 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nurses are responsible for the well-being of their patients and need to be educated in identification and fall prevention measures. Some facilities now make it mandatory to attend special classes such as Nurses Improving Care for Health-system Elders (NICHE), or complete an annual patient safety test, as an aid to improve care. Best Practice in Fall Prevention As part of an ongoing effort to maintain a safe environment, falls are being monitored by the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators, the National Quality Forum, and the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcome. The Joint Commission has mandated healthcare facilities to continuously assess patients at risk for falls, and Medicare services will no longer reimburse hospitals responsible for a sentinel event (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014, p. 136).…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Learn Which Seniors Are At Risk Of Falling The first thing you need to do is learn which residents are more likely to fall. These are the residents that you need to keep an extra eye on and whom you need to offer additional assistance to around stairs and steps, and with moving items. Know Which Residents Are Prone To Falling The first thing you need to know if which seniors have fallen down before.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Senior Care

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How to Prevent Slips and Falls at Home Falls and slips are the most common fears of seniors at home. Because of the fact that they can no longer fully trust their body especially when going through a chronic condition, the pain that it can cause might traumatize them. Plus, recovering from a fall might take longer given the weakened capabilities of their bodies to produce healing cells and it can be very costly as well. This is why Covenant Premium Senior Care sees senior care in Richmond, Texas for your elderly loved ones at home is very important.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Statement Of The Research Problem Patients aged 65 years and older are at higher risk of sustaining fall-related injuries during hospitalization. Studies have shown that 70% of hospital accidents are fall-related (Olrich, Kalman, & Nigolian, 2012). As such, falls have become one of the leading problems confronting healthcare organizations. With the growing number of fall incidents, patients fall has now been recognized as a quality indicator and have even been considered as nursing-sensitive quality indicator because they can be traced to the quality of nursing care (Hicks, 2015). With the negative outcomes arising from patients’ falls, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services no longer reimburse hospitals for the cost of additional care related to fall injuries (Tzeng, 2011).…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A long life starts with taking care of yourself physically and emotionally. This begins with a well balanced diet, appropriate exercise, attending regular check ups, getting enough sleep and coping with stress in a healthy way. However you also need close, intimate relationships with people that make you feel good about yourself and can promote a positive self image. As we age we must stay active and have a reason to get out of bed that makes us hopeful for tomorrow.…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    One out of every three seniors over the age of sixty-five has a fall each year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.), the emergency room treats over 2.5 million elderly and hospitalizes over 734 thousand every year. Roughly 50-75% of the nursing home geriatric…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The negative attitudes about aging must be challenged if change for the better to occur. This article provides suggestions for challenging ageism meanwhile encouraging an increased active lifestyle in older adults. The public education system is the first effort mentioned to address this issue, starting in primary schools our youth should be exposed to recognizing the diversity in the older population and the multilevel influences on the functioning and health of older individuals. There must also be an increase in public awareness of positive images of aging, specifically focused on people aged 50 and older. The healthcare professionals and social service providers need realistic expectations about what older people are capable and incapable…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Inpatient Falls Prevention

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Prevention of Inpatient Falls Patient falls remain the most common adverse event in acute care facilities, with 2%-15% of hospitalized patients reported to fall at least once. Falls can lead to pain, loss of function, fear of further falls and even death (Tanaka, Sakuma, Ohtani, Toshiro, Matsumura, & Morimoto, 2012). An increased focus is being placed on inpatient falls because of morbidity, mortality, increased cost of care, and lack of reimbursement (Cumbler, Simpson, Rosenthal, & Likosky, 2013). The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) defines a fall as “an unplanned descent to the floor with or without injury to the patient” (Miake-Lye, Hempel, Ganz, & Shekelle, 2013).…

    • 1563 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Geriatric Interview Essay

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For the geriatric interview, I interviewed my grandmother, Minnie. She is 85 years old, widowed, and lives alone. Overall, she is in good health. Her medical history is pretty fair for her age. She takes daily vitamins and one pill for hypertension.…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays