Congress Abstracts 2006

100

STOP FOR SAFETY: A BMT FALL ASSESSMENT TOOL. Agnes Kulma, RN, MSN, ANP-C, Amy Meyers, RN, and Patty Johnston, RN, MHA, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.

Within M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) center is the largest transplant center in the world, performing an estimated 600 transplants per year. Between September of 2003 and July of 2004, M.D. Anderson s inpatient center experienced 335 patient falls. Sixty-four of these falls occurred on the BMT floor.

The first purpose of the project was the creation of a new fall risk tool. This tool was created to correctly identify and classify the risk factors specific to the BMT patient. Based on the calculated score from the BMT tool, the patient was placed into one of three risk categories that encompassed level-specific interventions. This included low (green), medium (yellow), and high (red) risk categories.

The second purpose of this project was to increase the nursing staff s knowledge and awareness of the identified risk factors and to educate them on the use of the newly created fall assessment tool. This purpose aided in the correct assessment of the high-risk patient. A pre-test and a post-test were given to evaluate the success of the 30-minute in-service. The clinical application of the risk assessment tool was evaluated through the utilization of an audit tool checklist. Weekly chart audits were performed in order to determine proper implementation and staff compliance of the new fall prevention program.

With the increasing trend of the fall incidence rate on the BMT unit, a multi-disciplinary Falls Taskforce Committee was created to address this pertinent issue. Based on research performed by the committee, it was determined that a tool would be created utilizing variance report data, research found in the literature review, and tools present in the literature.

Using a repeated measures t test, there was a substantial increase in percentage of questions answered correctly between the pre-test and the post-test. Overall compliance rate for the project implementation was 75.3%.

A successful fall prevention program aids in the responsibility of keeping patients safe and attempts to eradicate unnecessary complications, while promoting health restoration after the bone marrow transplant process. In doing so, it aids the patient and the health care team in reaching the ultimate goal of making cancer history.