Falls Prevention in Older Adults

Course Overview
This course provides an overview of best practice falls prevention strategies based on best available evidence. It uses clinical scenarios to guide participants through all aspects of falls prevention in community, residential aged care, and hospital settings. It outlines interventions that may assist to minimise injuries when falls occur.
This course may be used by all participants as evidence of relevant, person-centred training in falls prevention strategies.

Target Audience
Nurses

Learning Objective
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and describe best practice falls prevention strategies including standard falls prevention measures and person-centred falls prevention strategies for individuals at risk.
2. Outline the four steps to person-centred falls prevention including nursing judgement, falls risk screening, falls risk assessment, and person-centred falls prevention plans.
3. Understand the value of nursing judgement when identifying individuals at risk of a fall.
4. Describe the difference between falls risk screening and assessment and be familiar with commonly used falls risk screening tools.
5. Understand the components of a detailed falls risk assessment and practice the use of common risk assessment tools, such as the FRAMP and FROP-Com.
6. Identify the three groups of risk factors for falls in older adults: environmental, physical health, and psychological function - and highlight examples of each.
7. Describe the interventions that are available to help reduce the risk of falls in hospital, community, and residential aged care settings.
8. Understand the difference between standard and person-centred falls prevention strategies and interventions to minimise harm from falls.
9. Apply their knowledge of falls-risk screening, assessment, and interventions to develop and implement person-centred falls prevention plans.

Business Outcomes
Falls prevention is a specific criteria under the NCQHS standards (Standard 5: Comprehensive care standard, action areas 5.24, 5.25 and 5.26). It is essential learning for all those providing nursing care and provides training that is transferrable to practice.