NURS FPX 8006 Assessment 1 Forming an Innovative Healthcare Team to Promote a New Approach to a Current and Ongoing Healthcare Issue

Forming an Innovative Healthcare Team to Promote a New Approach to a Current and Ongoing Healthcare Issue

Falls in elderly patients with long term care is a significant problem of the elderly patients in terms of public health and patient safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024) state that 1 out of every four adults aged more than 65 years falls annually, and falls are the leading cause of injury-related mortality among this population. The risk is increased in long-term care facilities due to frailty, polypharmacy, cognitive impairment, and mobility problems. Falls prevention needs an interprofessional, multifaceted approach that engages the experience of various healthcare professionals. This paper proposes a strategy for assembling an interprofessional team to address fall prevention among elderly patients in long-term care, grounded in the opinions of four healthcare professionals and evidence-based studies.

Healthcare Issue

Fall prevention among older adults residing in long-term care is the selected healthcare problem. The population is highly susceptible due to physiological decline with age, multiple comorbidities, and dependence on institutional care. Although the prevalence of falls increases in the elderly population that lives in the community (i.e., about 30-40 percent) compared to the nursing home population (i.e., nearly 50 percent), the burden remains higher in institutionalized populations (Bastami & Azadi, 2020A) study conducted by Lee and Yu (2020) demonstrated that multifactorial programs (i.e., exercise, reviewing medication, and environmental adjustments) will reduce fall rates by up to 30 percent.

Based on the findings of the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024) report, falls are the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries affecting older adults in the United States, and over 3 million emergency department visits annually are caused by falls. Additionally, O’Connor et al. (2022) reported that approximately 37.3 million falls requiring medical attention occur worldwide each year, and the majority involve older adults. The fact that risk factors such as polypharmacy, cognitive impairment, muscle weakness, and environmental hazards interact to contribute to the greater risks of falls is evidence that the condition is intertwined.

The physical effects of falls include not only physical consequences but also psychological effects, such as fear of falling, loss of independence, and a decline in quality of life. Baumann et al. (2022) determined that interprofessional fall-prevention teams in residential care were linked to a 19 percent reduction in the rate of hospital admissions caused by fall-related injuries. Along the same lines, the study by Wiedenmann et al. (2023) demonstrated that exercise interventions focused on balance and functional training reduced the risk of falls by 23% in older adults. Moreover, Baumann et al. (2022) stressed that interdisciplinary fall-prevention programs involving nursing, physical therapy, pharmacists, and geriatricians are superior to single-discipline programs, underscoring the need for team-based strategies. An interprofessional team is necessary to solve the problem, as it cannot be addressed in a single area.

Roles and Perspectives

As a member of the interprofessional team tackling fall prevention among older people in long-term care facilities, the registered nurse, physical therapist, pharmacist, and geriatrician bring a mix of skills to improve outcomes. The registered nurse coordinates daily provision, risk assessment using validated tools, individual fall-prevention strategies, and educates residents and their families to foster safety (Ojo & Thiamwong, 2022). Physical therapists assess gait and balance and prescribe exercise and assistive devices to help restore mobility and independence (Wiedenmann et al., 2023). Pharmacists identify and manage the risks of polypharmacy, monitor the risks of adverse drug reactions such as sedation or dizziness, and deprescribe unsafe medications to minimize the chances of falls (Baumann et al., 2022).

The geriatrician also addresses the medical complexities of aging residents to ensure that comorbidities such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and dementia are well managed and integrates team recommendations into individual plans of care. The behavioral health interdisciplinary program (BHIP) model illustrates the fact that interdisciplinary team-based models in healthcare result in reduced fragmentation and improved clinical outcomes and patient safety. Pharmacists in interprofessional primary healthcare teams enable comprehensive medication management and patient counseling and collaborate with other medical professionals to make decisions to avoid preventable adverse drug events (Wiedenmann et al., 2023). Interprofessional collaboration is effective in reducing falls and hospitalizations and improving the quality of life of older adults in institution-based care (O’Connor et al., 2022). Collectively, the disciplines create a holistic patient-centered initiative that adds to the multifactorial etiology of falls. Interprofessional collaboration is not only a reinforcement of preventive care but also a long-term resident safety and well-being.

Critical Appraisal of Studies

Research conducted using quantitative methods provides quantitative data on fall prevention procedures in long-term care. Albasha et al. (2023) examined employees’ opinions on ways to address falls in long-term care homes. The problem with the research was that evidence-based practice (exercise, medication review, and vitamin D supplementation) was not applied to a great extent in the current staff approaches. This study aimed to investigate staff knowledge and practices and to propose solutions to prevent falls. The literature review identified the gaps in the recommended guidelines and staff practices. The study design was a cross-sectional survey. The sampling was done with 155 respondents among the staff of 13 LTC facilities in southwest Ireland. The environment was various LTC sites of different sizes. The ethical considerations were informed consent and institutional approval. The methods of data collection included paper and online surveys, and data analysis was based on content analysis using the Theoretical Domains Framework. The result was that staff members often proposed environmental changes, employee education, and alarms, but few proposed proactive risk assessment, exercise, or medication review.

The discussion revealed a knowledge gap among employees regarding evidence-based fall-prevention practices. The limitations were a poor response rate (15%) and the possibility of sampling bias. The conclusions revealed a need for further staff training and the incorporation of guideline-based practices. Information on funding was not clearly stated. Research conducted using quantitative methods provides quantitative data on fall prevention procedures in long-term care. Albasha et al. (2023) examined employees’ opinions on ways to address falls in long-term care homes. The research problem was that evidence-based practice (exercise, medication review, and vitamin D supplementation) was not applied to a great extent in the current staff approaches. This study aimed to investigate staff knowledge and practices and to propose solutions to prevent falls. The literature review identified the gaps in the recommended guidelines and staff practices. The study design was a cross-sectional survey. The sampling was done with 155 respondents among the staff of 13 LTC facilities in southwest Ireland.

The environment was various LTC sites of different sizes. The ethical considerations were informed consent and institutional approval. The methods of data collection included paper and online surveys, and data analysis was based on content analysis using the Theoretical Domains Framework. The result was that staff members often proposed environmental changes, employee education, and alarms, but few proposed proactive risk assessment, exercise, or medication review. The discussion revealed a knowledge gap among employees regarding evidence-based fall-prevention practices. The limitations were a poor response rate (15%) and the possibility of sampling bias. The conclusions revealed a need for further staff training and the incorporation of guideline-based practices. Information on funding was not clearly stated.

Outcomes and Solutions

Among the leading suggestions the interprofessional team can make is a multifactorial fall-prevention program for older residents of long-term care facilities. The model combines nursing risk assessment, exercise interventions led by physiotherapists, medication reviews with the help of pharmacists, and geriatricians supervising (Ojo & Thiamwong, 2022). It has been shown that falls do not have a single cause but result from the interaction of physical deterioration, polypharmacy, environmental risk factors, and chronic diseases (Lee & Yu, 2020). Therefore, an interdisciplinary approach that addresses related risks is more effective than discipline-specific interventions. The registered nurse would plan fall risk screening using certified techniques, such as the Morse Fall Scale, and introduce education programs for residents and their families to raise awareness and encourage adherence to preventive measures. The physical therapist would offer personalized exercises, including balance and strength exercises, and this intervention can prevent falls by up to 23 percent (Papalia et al., 2020). 

Finally, the geriatrician would include all recommendations in the resident’s care plan to ensure that comorbidities such as osteoporosis and dementia are under control. The team will be interdisciplinary, combining professional perspectives to facilitate a comprehensive, evidence-based program. Research conducted by Ojo and Thiamwong (2022) and Baumann et al. (2022) has confirmed that interprofessional, multifactorial programs reduce falls and consequent hospitalizations to a significant extent. Consequently, the team intervention will improve the long-term health of elderly care residents.

Conclusion

Multidisciplinary care teams play a crucial role in addressing complex healthcare issues, such as fall prevention among older people in long-term care facilities. The teams bring together the expertise of nurses, physical therapists, pharmacists, and geriatricians, and, by doing so, address risk factors in a comprehensive, whole-person approach. The plan is grounded in the multifactorial nature of falls, emphasizing physiological deterioration, medication risk factors, environmental factors, and chronic conditions. The strategies involve systematic assessment of fall risk, physical activity, balance training, medication, and individualized medical care. When combined, the interventions improve safety outcomes, mobility, independence, and overall quality of life for older people.