HUMPTY DUMPTY FALLS SCALE

Humpty Dumpty Falls scale: a case study-controlled study

Humpty Dumpty Falls scale: a case study-controlled study

Research problem/ Purpose or Question Hypothesis

The reason of this descriptive study was to assess whether the Humpty Dumpty Falls Scale (HDFS) identifies hospitalized pediatric patients at high risk for falls.

Review of Literature

Falls prevention literature, mainly focusing on elderly populations, was reviewed. A multidisciplinary team created the Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention consisting of a pediatric risk assessment tool, a modified tool for the outpatient setting, and protocols for the prevention of falls. Findings of the present study increase awareness of nursing managers and leaders as to the necessity for fall and injury risk assessment as a safety and quality measure for inpatient pediatric populations. Falls have been shown to be an issue affecting many hospitals. However, most fall prevention programs focus on the elderly. These prevention programs that include assessment of risk for falls and prevention protocols have proven successful in the reduction of inpatient falls. Several tools to identify at risk patients have been implemented and validated within the adult population. The development of high risk assessment tools identifies patients who are at risk for falls. Validation of these tools has not occurred in the pediatric population.

Theoretical/Conceptual framework

Risk factors associated with pediatric patient falls include patient's age, gender, diagnosis, cognitive impairments, environmental factors, response to surgeries/sedation/anesthesia and medication usage. The scale was created from historical falls reporting data and process improvement data to identify average scores of all inpatient populations. Two out of five instruments presented well to classify children at risk of falls. Longer length of stay, bleeding cautions/blood disorders and temperament/behavior issues were significant predictors of fall likelihood. Cognitive impairment or neurological infection was not associated to a bigger likelihood of drop or wound risk for this sample.

Research Design

The study was a agreed case-control design. A chart review of 153 pediatric cases that fell and 153 controls that did not fall were pair-matched by age, gender, and diagnosis.

Sampling procedure / facts and figures Collection

From a number of aspects, the matched case-control design conducted in a sample of 100 inpatient pediatric patients.

Procedure/Ethics Presentation of Data

Falls Prevention Pediatric Program with the HDFS device addresses the junction charge persevering Safety Goals, but farther study is needed to analyze HDFS sensitivity-specificity. In a case-control study, Hill-Rodriguez & Messmer (2008) reported 1.87 odds ratio (OR) when HDFS tally is larger than or ...