The level of knowledge and competency in the use of the Morse Fall Scale as an assessment tool in the prevention of patient falls

ABSTRACT

ntroduction Patient falls has been identified as one of the major issues in today’s health care despite efforts taken in preventing such incidents from happening (Cox et al ., 2014). Patient falls can be prevented by using fall risk assessment tools such as Morse Fall Scale. Morse Fall Scale was implemented in the year 2014 in a private hospital in Malaysia but the patient fall rate did not decrease. Objective: The research objective is to determine the nurses’ level of knowledge and competency in the use of the Morse Fall Scale as an assessment tool in the prevention of patient falls. Method: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional research design was conducted with 100 registered nurses from a private hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Universal sampling technique was used to recruit the nurses. Results: The registered nurses had a moderate level of knowledge (M = 7.72; SD = 1.72) and competency (scoring Morse Fall Scale, M = 4.75; SD = 1.26; planning intervention, M = 13.19; SD = 1.89) in using the Morse Fall Scale. Conclusion: It is recommended that a review of the training programme on the use of the Morse Fall Scale be implemented in a more structured manner.