Degree Name
Nursing Practice, DNP
Publication Date
12-1-2025
First Advisor
Lisa Drake
Second Advisor
Chandra Carter
Abstract
Patient falls remain one of the most frequent adverse events in hospital settings, leading to injury, prolonged hospital stays, and increased healthcare costs. The identified problem was high fall rates at a specialty hospital. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement (QI) project was to evaluate the effectiveness of an evidence-based (EB) educational intervention, using the Fall TIPS (Tailoring Interventions for Patient Safety) toolkit, in improving direct care nursing staff’s knowledge, confidence, and perceived ability to implement fall prevention strategies for high-risk patients. The aim was to improve the nursing staff’s knowledge, confidence, and perceived ability to implement fall precaution strategies following the educational intervention. Guided by the Johns Hopkins Evidence-Based Practice (JHEBP) Model and the Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement, or ADKAR change management framework, a pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was used. The population consisted of 19 direct care nursing staff in the medical-surgical unit with the highest fall rates. Data were collected using the validated 11-item Fall TIPS Fall Prevention Knowledge Test (FPKT), measuring knowledge, confidence, and perceived ability. The paired samples t-test demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in knowledge (t(18) = -8.06, p < 0.001). The Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test showed that confidence (p = 0.07) and perceived ability (p = 0.56) were not statistically significant. Limitations were a small sample size, a single-unit focus, and a brief implementation period. The project advances the nursing discipline by demonstrating that EB education can strengthen clinical competence and translate research into practice. Findings support sustained practice change at the practice site.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Lee, Jotis J., "Reduction in Patient Falls: A Quality Improvement Project" (2025). Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects. 238.
https://arch.astate.edu/dnp-projects/238
