This National Falls Awareness Week 22-25 September, we raised awareness of the work we are doing in our hospitals around falls prevention.
The risk of a fall increases with age, and for older adults this can lead to serious harm and injury. The wrong shoes, getting out of bed or standing up too quickly for example, can all lead to an avoidable fall.
Raising awareness of falls, and how to prevent them, is a key part of our work to improve the health outcomes for patients.
Training for staff
During Falls Prevention Week, our falls team provided targeted education and training for clinical teams to make them falls aware and engaged about how they can prevent falls.
Specialist goggles
Specialist goggles mimicking visual impairments were borrowed from the hospital eye clinic. These provided first-hand experience of the challenges faced by some patients and how to support them.
Deconditioning
Colleagues were also educated about deconditioning. This is when muscles in the body may weaken after a period of time of inactivity in a hospital bed, leading to longer recovery times and a greater risk of falling.
Yasmin Walsh, Senior Sister and Falls Prevention Lead at Leeds Teaching Hospitals, said:
“We take falls prevention extremely seriously and are committed to doing everything we can to keep our patients safe.
“Falls Prevention Week is an important opportunity to raise awareness, but our focus on preventing avoidable falls continues throughout the year.
“I was delighted to see colleagues engaging so well with the training and initiatives, as developing their skills and knowledge was a really important part of the awareness raising. It was fantastic to see colleagues sharing learning and putting that knowledge into practice to improve patient care.
“We know there is always more we can do, so we will continue to develop new ideas and look at how we can improve the support we provide. Ultimately, this is about helping every patient stay as safe and well as possible while they are in our care.”
Helpful resources for patients
Read more about falls prevention resources.