Association Between Nurses’ Knowledge and Practice Regarding Fall Prevention of Patients in Private Sector Hospital
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Abstract
Background: Falls are common preventable patient-safety events among hospitalized older adults and are influenced by patient-related, environmental, medication-related, and care-process factors. Nurses play a central role in fall-risk assessment, patient education, environmental safety, medication-effect monitoring, and documentation of fall incidents. Objective: To evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on nurses’ knowledge and fall-prevention practices in selected clinical units of a private sector hospital in Lahore. Methods: A one-group pretest–posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted over six months among 40 registered nurses working in the Medical Intensive Care Unit, Surgical Ward, Urological Ward, and Emergency Department of Ali Fatima Hospital, Lahore. Data were collected using a structured knowledge questionnaire and fall-prevention practice checklist before and after an educational intervention. Frequencies, percentages, and paired-samples t-test were used for analysis in SPSS version 27. Results: Post-intervention responses showed improvement across most knowledge and practice items, including recognition of previous fall history, polypharmacy, environmental modification, fall-risk assessment on admission, use of safety tools, medication-effect monitoring, patient education, and participation in fall-prevention training. The overall paired comparison showed a significant increase in post-intervention scores compared with pre-intervention scores, with a mean difference of -38.60, 95% CI -44.01 to -33.19, t(39) = -14.43, and p < 0.001. Conclusion: The educational intervention was associated with significant improvement in nurses’ knowledge and fall-prevention practice scores. Regular training and institutional reinforcement may strengthen fall-prevention practices in inpatient care
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