Determination of Risk of Falling in Pediatric Patients and Views of Nurses

Abstract

Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the risk of falling in pediatric patients and to determine the vievs of nurses in this regard. Method: The population of the descriptive and cross-sectional study consisted of children aged between 0-18 years (N: 161) hospitalized in the services of hospitals in Kars province as well as nurses (N: 60) working in these services. The data were collected by using “Pediatric Fall Risk Assessment”, “Information Form for Nurses” and “BUÇH II Fall Risk Scale”. SPSS 20 program was used to analyze the data of the study. Results: 41.6% of the children included in the study had a risk of falling according to the BUCH II score and the mean score of risk of falling was 5.06 ± 1.04. Those who were boys, 1-6 age group, had no orientation problems, were staying with their parents, non-sedated and are not restricted by mobility were more likely to have a risk of falling. 58.3% of the nurses considered that falls in children were a professional mistake and 90% thought that nurses had responsibility for the prevention of falls in children. Of the nurses, 96.7% stated that each child should be assessed in terms of risk of falling, 85% assessed eachchild in their service in terms of risk of falling, and 78.3% reported that they took adequatemeasures against falling in the service. Coclusion: A significant proportion of the pediatric patients were at risk for falls. It is recommended to determine the risk levels of falls in all hospitalized children using appropriate assessment tools and to raise the related awareness of nurses through trainings to be provided within the context of fall prevention programs.