Literature Review: Patient Education Essay

Falls and the ensuing injuries are a major public health problem due to the associated adverse outcomes such as serious injuries like head injuries and fractures; reduced quality of life; anxiety; prolonged length of hospital stay; increased healthcare costs; and even death. About 25% of falls during hospitalization are injurious and cause serious fractures, anxiety, and soft-tissue injuries. Patient education is a strategy effective in increased patient engagement in fall prevention interventions. Patient education helps patients self-manage their risk of falls. Literature Review: Patient Education Essay

A Comparison of Research Questions

The research question in Heng et al (2020) is “What are the findings of the current literature regarding patient falls prevention education in hospitals?” This question aimed to identify available evidence about patient falls prevention education in healthcare organizations. Lopez-Jeng et al (2018) had implicit research questions aimed to determine how the safety culture for falls prevention can be improved using interdisciplinary health education. The research question in Johnson et al (2020) is “How reliable and valid are fall risk prevention strategies in hospitals?” This question aims to identify effective fall prevention interventions in healthcare organizations. The research question in Vonnes et al (2017) is implicit and aimed to determine the significance of involving patients and their families in fall prevention. Similarly, in Duckworth et al (2017) the research question is implicit and aimed to find out the impact of patient engagement in regard to falls. The implicit research question in Hills et al (2015) aimed to find out how hospitalized older adults can be engaged in a fall prevention education program. The research question in the study by Barker et al (2019) is implicit and aimed to determine the impact of a patient-centered program in preventing falls among the geriatric population presented to the emergency department after sustaining a fall. Finally, the research question in Hill et al (2019) is implicit and aimed to identify the impact of personalized multimodal fall prevention programs.

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A Comparison of Sample Populations

The study by Heng et al (2020) is a systematic review where an analysis of 43 journal articles was done. The study sample in the study by Lopez-Jeng et al (2018) included healthcare providers who provided patient education to patients about falls. The sample population in Johnson et al (2020) includes unit-level and patient-level data for inpatients at the medical-surgical ward at Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center. The study sample in Vonnes et al (2017) includes master’s degree-prepared nurses while the sample population in the study by Duckworth et al (2017) includes patients admitted in various hospitals within the US. The study sample in Hills et al (2015) includes older adults admitted in an eight aged care rehabilitation hospital while the study sample in the study by Barker et al (2019) includes patients who presented to the emergency department in an Australian hospital after sustaining falls. Finally, the sample population in Hill et al (2019) include patients aged over 60 years and were hospitalized for rehabilitation. The sample populations in these studies include patients with the likelihood of sustaining falls during hospitalization and thus patient education is important to reduce the risk for falls. Literature Review: Patient Education Essay

A Comparison of the Limitations of the Study

The major limitation in the selected studies is that the process of data collection exclusively relied on the self-reports and information from the study participants; this may be influenced by subjectivity. Moreover, components like demographics of participants might have affected the outcome measures for the selected studies. In addition, all the selected studies have used different methodologies, have different objectives, population samples and this may make the synthesis of the evidence from the selected studies a challenge. Finally, qualitative studies have relatively small sample sizes and this may introduce bias and consequently limit the generalization of the studies’ findings.

Conclusion and Recommendations for Further Research

The reviewed literature indicated patient education and engagement are among the fall prevention interventions effective in preventing and reducing the rate of falls. Individualized patient education and integration of patient-centered fall prevention strategies in the routine care of hospitalized patients can play a big role in reducing the rate of falls among hospitalized patients. Patient education helps patients to understand their risk for falls and understand the measures to adhere to prevent falls.

Further research is recommended to determine how the existing fall prevention education programs can be modified to fit each specific patient, for example, patients with cognitive impairment and how best educational outcomes can be measured in patients with cognitive impairment. Literature Review: Patient Education Essay

References

Barker, A., Cameron, P., Flicker, L., Arendts, G., Brand, C., & Etherton-Beer, C. et al. (2019). Evaluation of RESPOND, a patient-centered program to prevent falls in older people presenting to the emergency department with a fall: A randomized controlled trial. PLOS Medicine, 16(5), e1002807.

Duckworth, M., Adelman, J., Belategui, K., Feliciano, Z., Jackson, E., & Khasnabish, S. et al. (2019). Assessing the Effectiveness of Engaging Patients and Their Families in the Three-Step Fall Prevention Process Across Modalities of an Evidence-Based Fall Prevention Toolkit: An Implementation Science Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21(1), e10008. https://doi.org/10.2196/10008

Heng, H., Jazayeri, D., Shaw, L., Kiegaldie, D., Hill, A., & Morris, M. (2020). Hospital falls prevention with patient education: a scoping review. BMC Geriatrics, 20(1).

Hill, A., McPhail, S., Haines, T., Morris, M., Etherton-Beer, C., & Shorr, R. et al. (2019). Falls After Hospital Discharge: A Randomized Clinical Trial of Individualized Multimodal Falls Prevention Education. The Journals Of Gerontology: Series A, 74(9), 1511-1517.

Hill, A., McPhail, S., Francis-Coad, J., Waldron, N., Etherton-Beer, C., & Flicker, L. et al. (2015). Educators’ perspectives about how older hospital patients can engage in a falls prevention education program: a qualitative process evaluation. BMJ Open, 5(12), e009780.

Johnson, K., Scholar, H., Stinson, K., NEA-BC, Sherry Razo, M., & NEA-BC. (2020). Patient fall risk and prevention strategies among acute care hospitals. Applied Nursing Research, 51, 151188.

Lopez-Jeng, C., & Eberth, S. (2019). Improving Hospital Safety Culture for Falls Prevention Through Interdisciplinary Health Education. Health Promotion Practice, 152483991984033.

Vonnes, C., & Wolf, D. (2017). Fall risk and prevention agreement: engaging patients and families with a partnership for patient safety. BMJ Open Quality, 6(2). Literature Review: Patient Education Essay