Mr Anthony Evangelista¹, Mrs Jennifer Zerafa¹, Dr Annie Chiu¹, Mrs Cathy Dow¹, Ms Deanne Layton¹, Mrs Allend Viyar¹, Ms Kirsten Kopelke¹
1Mercy Palliative Care, Australia
Biography:
Anthony Evangelista is a Clinical Nurse Consultant with a background in critical care, aged care, and community palliative nursing. He earned his nursing degree from the University of the Philippines and began his career in ICU at the Philippine General Hospital. After moving to Australia in 2014, he worked in aged care before joining Mercy Palliative Care in 2019, where he now practices as a Clinical Nurse Consultant, specializing in community-based end-of-life care.
Abstract:
Background:
Falls are a leading cause of unintentional injury among older adults in Australia, often resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. Given their multifactorial nature, falls are considered a shared concern within healthcare settings, particularly in palliative care where patients experience disease progression, fluctuating functional levels, and polypharmacy.
Aim:
To introduce a post falls multidisciplinary huddle to facilitate in-depth discussion and review of falls resulting in harm in a community palliative care setting.
Methods:
-Falls Risk for Older People in the Community (FROP-COM) screening tool and falls prevention strategies formally integrated into routine care.
-Data collection on number and severity of falls in a 12-month period
-Weekly multidisciplinary falls huddle involving a Palliative Care Consultant, Physiotherapist, Nurse Unit Manager and Clinical Nurse Consultant with detailed discussion of all falls resulting in injury and/or head strike, medications and other contributing factors and implementing individual falls prevention plans
-Data comparison of number and severity of falls compared to data prior to implementation of falls huddle
Outcome:
The falls incident report indicated that while the number of falls resulting in minor to moderate injuries remained similar, the cases of falls leading to serious injuries decreased. Additionally, there was a noticeable enhancement in screening tool completion, individualized fall prevention planning, patient education, and appropriate referrals.
Conclusion:
While the full impact of the falls huddle is still under evaluation, early findings indicate a positive trend in reducing fall severity and improving patient care. The structured, collaborative approach facilitated by the weekly multidisciplinary huddle has proven valuable in addressing the complex nature of falls, ensuring comprehensive assessment and tailored interventions. Ongoing data analysis and process refinement will be essential to validate findings and optimize falls prevention strategies within community palliative care.