Abstract

BELLA BEORLEGUI, Miriam; ESANDI LARRAMENDI, Nuria  and  CARVAJAL VALCARCEL, Ana. Recurrent falls prevention in elderly people. Gerokomos [online]. 2017, vol.28, n.1, pp.25-29. ISSN 1134-928X.

Falls are “involuntary events that make people lose balance and fall to the ground without any Surface to stop it”. Recurrent falls (two or more falls produced in a year) are a frequent problem in geriatrics that predisposes elderly people to inability, dependence, and to suffer many diseases. Prevention measures can decrease the incidence of accidental falls.

The aim of this paper is to learn nursing interventions that help preventing new falls and psychological impact in elderly people. To do this, a clinical case is developed. After analysing scientific evidence we propose interventions to prevent falls consequences. The analysis is divided into two sections: fall risk assessment, and interventions to prevent falls. The literature reflects that the valuation of the risk of falling is important to make care interventions. Knowing intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors help us designing these interventions. Literature also reflects that falls produce emotional impact, and it proposes some measures to identify and prevent them.

In conclusion, the revision reflects the importance of doing a good nursing assessment to elderly people, using different instruments to detect intervention focuses. This research concludes with the necessity of protocolize the valuation of risk of falling, according to de physical and the emotional aspects, to individualize it to patients.

Keywords : falls; elderly; prevention; intervention; nurs*; fear falling; recurrent falls; post-fall syndrome.

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