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Access Type

WSU Access

Date of Award

1-1-2003

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Education Evaluation and Research

First Advisor

Donald Marcotte

Abstract

Nursing home resident falls have become increasingly prevalent in the last decade. Previous research has identified numerous fall risk factors among nursing home residents. There have also been studies supporting the need for nurse aide education on falls; little investigation to date has addressed the possible correlation of the nurse aide's in-service education alone or in conjunction with nurse aide experience in the reduction of resident falls. The nurse aide, who provides the majority of physical care and assistance to nursing home residents, has the greatest opportunity to affect the incidence of resident falls. The study compared nurse aide questionnaire results and incident report documentation from three Detroit nursing homes. Cross tabulation, Pearson Chi Square and ANOVA were performed to test for a relationship between resident fall events, nurse aide experience, nurse aide initial training and in-service education and experience across three sampled Detroit nursing homes. Neither nurse aide experience nor the length of initial training had an impact on resident fall events. However, there is an indication that initial nurse aide training may not be sufficient. A more detailed fall prevention and supervision module should be instituted in initial nurse aide training as well as in the nursing home in-service education format. This research also provided additional answers about variables which were related to and could assist in explaining resident falls in terms that have not been explored in previous research.

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