This week we are recognising Falls Prevention Awareness Week (16 - 20 September).
Our Falls Team is continually working to improve the quality of care we provide. Most recently, the team established a Falls Champion Network of 90 colleagues who are raising the profile of falls prevention on our wards, by promoting prevention initiatives, such as the falls alarm system.
Ivan Obien is a Charge Nurse on the Acute Medicine Assessment Unit at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and has been volunteering as a Falls Champion for over a year. He said: “As a champion, it’s my job to ensure current interventions that the Trust has implemented are carried out. Falls are inevitable but the role of champions is to focus on reducing the number of falls and the impact they can cause to our vulnerable patients.”
As well as identifying patients who are admitted and may be high falls risk, Ivan has helped to educate colleagues on the falls alarm system, which alerts staff via a pager if a patient has left their bed without assistance.