A fall prevention program for elderly individuals. Exercise in long-term care settings.

The purpose of this research was to explore the role of exercise in preventing falls, specifically assessing the effectiveness of an ankle strengthening and walking program to improve balance, ankle strength, walking speed, and falls efficacy and to decrease falls and subjects' fear of falling. Sixteen individuals participated in the study which was conducted at two nursing homes. Subjects were assigned randomly to an intervention or control group. The participants in the intervention group completed a 3-month supervised program of ankle strengthening exercises and walking. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample, and differences in the least square means were used to assess the outcome variables (i.e., balance, ankle strength, walking speed, falls, fear of falling, falls efficacy) before the exercise program, and again at 3 months and 6 months after the program for the intervention and control subjects. Findings for the intervention group from pretest to 3-month posttest were, for the most part, maintained or in the predicted direction, suggesting that regular exercise shows promise for preventing deterioration and improving fall-related outcomes for elderly nursing home residents.

Outcome indicators for direct and indirect caregiving.

Informal caregiving and outcomes for caregiving are an important part of health care and of particular importance in nursing. The purpose of this research is to report the results of a survey mailed to nursing experts for validation of the outcome labels Caregiver Role Performance: Direct Care and Caregiver Role Performance: Indirect Care and their accompanying indicators. Experts were asked to rate how important the identified indicators were for assessing those two outcomes. In addition, the respondents were asked to what extent nursing interventions influence the achievement of each identified indicator for Caregiver Role Performance: Direct Care and Caregiver Role Performance: Indirect Care. In general, the validity of the concept analysis work by the caregiver focus group was supported. Ten indicators for Caregiver Performance: Direct Care were retained, 1 was dropped that was considered most appropriate for indirect care, and 3 new indicators were added to reflect the nurse experts surveyed. For Caregiver Performance: Indirect Care, all of the indicators were retained.

From risk for trauma to unintentional injury risk: falls--a concept analysis. Nursing Diagnosis Extension and Classification Research Team.

TOPIC: Concept analysis of the nursing diagnosis risk for trauma. PURPOSE: To examine the nursing diagnosis risk for trauma and to specify the risk factors for falling. SOURCES: Research and informational articles on falling, and NANDA Nursing Diagnoses: Definitions and Classification, 1999-2000. CONCLUSIONS: Replace the current nursing diagnosis risk for trauma with the more specific nursing diagnosis unintentional injury risk: falls. The other risks included in risk for trauma (e.g., burns) also will need to be developed.

A fall prevention educational program for community dwelling seniors.

The purpose of this research was to assess participants' responses to a fall prevention educational program. Fourteen persons volunteered to participate in the study conducted at a large senior center. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample and to assess subjects' awareness about falls, attitudes about fall risk, fall prevention behaviors, and incidence of falls before the fall prevention program and again at one month and three months after the program. Forty-six percent of the sample had fallen in the previous year. In general, subjects' perceptions that their risk of falling was lower than others of the same age and sex increased following the fall prevention program. Additionally, subjects were somewhat more concerned about falling after attendance at the fall prevention program. Most of the participants completed the home safety checklist; however, very few subjects made changes at home to reduce the risk of falling or did the recommended muscle strengthening exercises. Suggestions for community fall prevention programs are offered based upon the pilot results.