prenatal
newborn/infant
toddler & preschooler
school age child
adolescent
older adult
environmental factors that affect safety
psychological factors that affect safety
physiological factors that affect safety
characteristics of safety
■ Truly risk free environment rare
■ Pervasiveness
– Consciously, people assume or neglect responsibility for safety
■ Perception
– Safety practices are learned
■ Management
– Prevention is a major characteristic
falls
– Risk higher in older adults
– Causes
■ Sleep deprivation
■ New environment
■ Change in medication
■ Decreases physical strength
due to illness
client inherent accidents
– Seizures: if side rails aren’t up they could fall on the floor
– Self-inflicted harm: in psych
procedure related accidents
– Medication & fluid administration errors
– Improper performance of procedures
– Improper identification of patients
ineffective communication among caregivers
– Telephone & verbal orders
– Lack of standardized abbreviations
equipment related accidents
assessment of safety: nursing history
■ Current safety practices (seatbelt practices, immunizations,etc)
■ Risk identification
– Risks in workplace (what kind of job? eyewear? ear protection)
– Risk in home (look at home setup and where are they placed)
– Risk in HC agency
■ Fall risk assessment
■ Medications taken
■ Previous history of falls
- if they end up on the ground w/o meaning, that is a fall
nursing history
■ Difficulties/ recent changes
– Vision, hearing, taste
– Smell, sensation, communication
- can they smell smoke? can they taste rotten or spoiled food?
■ USE of assistive devices (hearing aids, glasses)
■ Problems with communication
– Language, sensory deficits, cognitive deficits
- someone might say help but it’s the only english word they know
physical exam LOC
– Alert (awake)
– Lethargic (Somnolent)
■ Extreme drowsiness (could answer questions but go right back to sleep)
– Stupor (Semicomatose) (elicit pain response = whole body will react)
■ Responds unpurposefully to painful stimuli
– Coma (no consciousness)
physical exam – orientation and glasgow
■ Orientation
– Person, time, place, situation
- do they know who they are? month or season? do they know they’re in the hospital and why?
■ Glasgow Coma Scale
– Normal 15
– Patient in coma scores 7 or less
physical exam – visual and hearing acuity and touch sense
■ Visual & hearing ability
– Availability/ Use of Assistive Devices
■ Touch Sense
– Particularly important in extremities
sensory processing ability
sensory deprivation
– Decrease or lack of meaningful stimuli
– Perceive remaining stimuli in distorted manner (someone climbing out of bed bc they hear a baby crying)
– Symptoms
■ Yawning, drowsiness
■ Reduced attention span
■ Impaired problem solving
■ Hallucinations, confusion
– Causes
■ Non-stimulating environment
■ Inability to receive stimuli
sensory overload
– Inability to process or manage amount of stimuli
– Symptoms
■ C/O fatigue, sleepiness
■ Irritability, anxiety, restlessness
■ Disorientation
■ Reduced problem solving ability
■ Increased muscle tension
– Causes
■ Quantity of internal stimuli
■ increase external stimuli
■ Inability to disregard stimuli
■ Sleep deprivation
physical exam – ability to communicate effectively
– Aphasia
- stroke pts
– Language barrier
– Inability to read