Question

What is the difference between these two questions?

•Hospital staff in the quality management department begin to notice an increase in in-patient falls.

•One staff member asks: 1) what are the demographic and medical characteristics of each in-patient experiencing falls and what are the frequencies of each characteristic?

•Another staff member asks: 2) From the nurses' perspectives, why are in-patients falling?

Answer 1

Both the questions aim at assessing the factors that are leading to an increasing number of inpatient falls.

The difference between the two questions is that:

• The first question demands for a more specific and systematic assessment that takes even the statistical parameters into consideration,but is more patient centered.

It requires figuring out all the demographic and medical characteristics of the patients that predisposes them to falls like the age,mobility status,presence of comorbidities,number of medications they are taking etc and finding the frequency by which each variable contributes to the fall.

• The second one is a more generalised question that seeks only the causes for the inpatient falls,and is not restricted to the characteristics of the patient alone.

The answer to this question can include whatever reasons that a nurse from his/her perspective can figure out.It can be either related to the patient's condition or can be due to problems in the facility like lack of proper rails,slippery floor, etc.