CANANDAIGUA – F.F. Thompson Hospital, an affiliate of UR Medicine, recently received the Choosing Wisely®️ Trailblazer award from Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM).
The award was created to celebrate leadership in improving quality health care and, according to NICHE and ABIM, is designed to recognize a clinical team for improving care for older adults in one of the clinical areas identified by the American Academy of Nursing’s Choosing Wisely®️ recommendations.
Thompson’s award was based on a research project the hospital submitted for the 2020 NICHE conference, called “Patient Perception of Falls Risk.” Given that one in three people over the age of 65 fall each year and that approximately 20 percent of these falls require medical attention, the Thompson nurses wanted to investigate whether a relationship exists between patients’ self-reported falls risk and the nursing assessment.
Interviewing nearly 100 hospitalized patients ages 65 and up and taking into account their demographic data, the nurses determined that upon admission, the majority rated their falls risk lower than the nurses who were using the Morse Falls Risk Assessment Scale. Patients who underestimate their falls risk require more education and information about the factors that increase risk of falling, the nurses determined.
“Previous research has focused on individuals’ perception of the falls risk at home, and very few studies have addressed patients’ perceptions of their risk in acute care settings,” said Thompson Health Vice President of Patient Care/Chief Nursing Officer Hazel Robertshaw. “It is rare for nurses in a community hospital of our size to undertake a research project – let alone a project as ambitious as this one – and I am extremely proud of our nurses for gathering insightful data to shed light on something that can lead to safer care within hospitals for our older population.”
With 113 beds, F.F. Thompson Hospital has been a NICHE-designated hospital since 2011, having received the designation from the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at the New York University College of Nursing. NICHE is now a program of the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at New York University.