ABSTRACT
The purpose of this multicenter, before-and-after observational study was to determine whether a short educational intervention was associated with improvement in self-reported safety behavior in older adults. We developed 4 original injury prevention presentations with companion testing materials: Motor Vehicle Safety, Fall Prevention, Pedestrian Safety, and Home Safety. Participants also completed pre-post Short Form Health Survey Instrument (SF-12) quality-of-life surveys. Of 414 participants, 226 completed follow-up testing and SF-12 surveys, for a 54.6% response rate. Those who completed either Pedestrian or Home Safety program showed no significant changes (P > .05) in either test scores or SF-12, and they comprised 61.9% of the final sample. Participants in the Motor Vehicle Safety and Fall Prevention programs accounted for 38.1% of the final sample and did show significant improvements between pre-post test scores. Only Fall Prevention participants showed significant differences in pre-post SF-12 scores. In the Fall Prevention group, numerous SF-12 subscores from the initial survey were significantly inversely correlated with pretest scores, and improvements in some SF-12 subscores correlated with improvements in test scores. Findings from the Fall Prevention group suggest that seniors with quality-of-life limitations may be aware of their increased risk and more willing to make changes to enhance safety. Further study is needed because many questions regarding optimal approaches to injury prevention in the aging demographic remain unanswered.
Subject(s)
Attitude to Health , Health Behavior , Health Education/organization & administration , Life Style , Safety Management/organization & administration , Wounds and Injuries/prevention & control , Aged/psychology , Chi-Square Distribution , Community-Institutional Relations , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Humans , Male , Michigan , Nursing Education Research , Program Evaluation , Quality of Life/psychology , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Hospital disaster plans should be developed to cover any potential event that could require the immediate evacuation of all patients. Intensive care unit (ICU) patients present multiple challenges for planners: reliability of hospital elevators, manpower needed to transport patients, and the time needed for stabilization before patient transfer. If the ICU is located on an upper floor of the hospital and patients have numerous life-support interventions in place, a vertical evacuation can require more resources than anticipated. A study was done using 12 moulaged patients who were carried down 4 flights of stairs. The lessons learned from the drill are reported.
