Sestrinska reč (Jan 2019)
The assessment of fall risk in hospitalised patients with diagnosed cerebrovascular complications of arterial hypertension
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The occurrence of accidents in a health care institutions is immediate indicator of the level of safety of the patients. The most frequent accidents are the falls of the patients which make up to 70% of hospital accidents. With 2-12% of patients the fall occurs during the hospitalization. At neurological wards this percentage is up to 45%. The aim of research: is to determine the level of risk of fall and the prediction rate reliability of the scales with which we assess the risk of fall of patients by comparing the results acquired from the examinees applying three different scales. METHOD: Designed as a retrospective study of intersection, the pilot research has been realized on a sample of 30 patients of both sexes, aged 40 to 90 years old, all having confirmed the cerebrovascular complication of arterial hypertension. As the instruments of the research three scales for the assessment of fall risk have been used: Morse Fall Scale, STRATIFY scale and Hendrich II scale. A documentary sheet has been formed for the needs of extracting data from the medical documentation. The data have been processed by descriptive statistics and graphically presented. RESULTS: None of the scales mentioned above covers all factors affecting the rise of the risk of fall. Congruence between the scales in the risk assessment has been noted in only 30% of examinees. With 20% of examinees the scales shows entirely different of risk assessment. Comparative analysis of sensibility and predictive ability of the scales has shown that the Morse scale has the highest level of positive predictive ability. The Hendrich II scale has shown the highest specificity but low predictive ability. The STRATIFY scale has shown the lowest sensitivity level and predictive ability. CONCLUSION: Patients suffering from cerebrovascular complication of arterial hypertension represent a group with high risk of fall. Reliable risk of fall assessment and adequate prevention in accordance with professional competencies and resources available are significant part in the work of nurses in health care centers.
