Authors: Malini Ganabathi, Umapathi Mariappan, Hani Mustafa.
Introduction: Fall is the major public health problem, and it is the second leading cause of death due to unintentionally injury. About 424,000 fall happen every year and 250,000 fall are from the hospital. It is estimated that 30% of falls in hospitals are result in severe injury. Increased awareness and availability of fall prevention (FP) services might help to reduce the adverse effects of falls. The aim of this study was to evaluate the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) on FP among nurses at King Abdulaziz Hospital – Ministry of National Guard – Al Hasa (KAH; MNG-HA).
Methods: Quantitative - Descriptive research design was adopted. The random sampling method was used to select the 220 registered nurses from adult care ward of KAH. Data was collected using a validated questionnaire (section1 sociodemographic, section 2 – knowledge on fall prevention, section 3- attitude on fall prevention, section 4 – practices on fall prevention). Informed concerns were taken from sample and Ethical clearance was obtained from concern authority.
Results: Out of 220 sample, 197 (89.5%) were responded and more than half of them were Philippine (59%) national. Among them, 96% were females, 55% had <5 year experience, 2.5% had worked >10 years. The average FP-related Knowledge level among participants was 16.26 ± 1.2 (Range: 0 to 20). A minority were aware of relationship between falls and feet-numbness and depression (13.2% and 28.9%, respectively). The average score of the participants’ attitude toward FP was 2.14 ± 0.75 (5 points in-total). In 12 out of 20 (12/20) items, the average score was <2. The Practices score, on the other hand, averaged 4.26 out of 5 (± 0.93). The items with highest and lowest average values were “falls with no obvious harm are always reported” (4.94 ± 0.27) and “participation in making FP policies” (3.02 ± 1.75), respectively. The statistically significant association was found between knowledge of nurses and nationality, work experience; association between attitude and age, undergraduate training; association between practice and age, educational background. Good knowledge did not correlate to positive attitude.
Conclusion: Falls are a genuine safety concern. The study showed overall good knowledge and practices of fall prevention at KAH, however there is a concern that the significance and potential impact of falls on patients’ outcomes are underestimated. Further, continuous training should be offered to highlight various falls risk factors and improve attitudes towards falls.
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