NURS 360: For Hospitalized Patients, Does the Use of Hourly Rounding as a Fall Reduction Intervention Reduce the Risk of Falls Compared to Using Fall Risk Education Alone?

Patient falls are prevalent within hospitals and are considered a never event if resulting in death or serious injury (Patient Safety Network, 2019). There are many precautions set in place in order to ensure that a patient is safe including having a call bell within reach, lowering the bed, bed alarms and using fall risk bracelets for those of increased risk. Some interventions are more effective than others, depending on the patient and their level of cognition (Heng et al, 2019, p.3). Education is a factor in fall reduction, but is not always reliable for those patients that don’t understand or are noncompliant. Hourly rounded is used to ensure patient safety by visualizing what the patient is currently doing, while also giving the patient a chance to ask for help while a nurse is present, so they don’t have to get out of bed.