Focus on Falls in Hospital

What is the role of acquired communication disability in the falls of people with stroke in hospital?  Supervisors:  Professor Bronwyn Hemsley , University of Technology Sydney (primary supervisor) Dr. Katherine Harding , Eastern Health, La Trobe University Dr Ian Skinner , Charles Sturt University Funding  This research has been funded by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and a Jumbunna Postgraduate Research Scholarship. Background Falls are one of the most common, harmful and costly hospital patient safety incidents  (Batchelor et al., 2012) . Falls potentially result in serious injury, loss of ability and confidence to mobile, increased length of stay and increased cost of care in hospital  (Batchelor et al., 2012;  Morello et al., 2015 ) . Patients with stroke are at an increased risk of falls, with an incidence of between 14% - 65%  (Batchelor et al., 2012;  Stroke Foundation, 2016 ) . Patien...

A few years ago, the organisation I was working for revamped the falls prevention program across sub acute sites and sought input from all disciplines regarding what we thought the risk factors for falls were. People with communication disability I thought were at an obvious risk, however, not all agreed. I set out on a journey to see if communication disability after a stroke was a risk factor for a fall through an ethically approved retrospective cohort study. Completing data collection on maternity leave, I took my data to one of my now supervisors, Katherine to see if I had a story to tell. Turns out I did... After a stroke, people who cannot communicate their basic needs (e.g., the need for the toilet or that they are hungry) are nearly twice as likely to fall . These people also fall more often. * Sullivan, R., & Harding, K. (2019). Do patients with severe poststroke communication difficulties have a higher incidence of falls during inpatient rehabilita...