says her hospital keeps extra-wide chairs at bedside for patients to
put their belongings on. That way, everything is close by for them to
avoid any risk of falling while getting ready to head home.
2
When tilting the table in the OR,
make sure all staff is at bedside.
Alert your staff that the table is going to be tilted. "We cannot tilt
the table without telling the team, so everyone is right at the bedside
and haven't stepped away," says Ms. Morris. "We had an incident here
where the table was moved, and the team wasn't focused on that, and
a patient did start to slide off." Although the patient didn't fall off and
hit the floor, Ms. Morris says it could have been a possibility. "If some-
one steps away from the field and doesn't know what's happening, [a
fall] could happen," she says.
When dealing with a larger patient, be especially careful and alert
when tilting the table. "A patient of size can be challenging," says
Danielle Mouradjian, BSN, RN, CCRN, a nursing professional develop-
ment specialist at HUP. "If a patient is coming at you, you have to say,
'No more tilting.'"
3
Make sure patients can
walk safely on their own in post-op.
In what they call their "Get Up and Go" test, HUP's OR staff has
their patients stand up, walk 10 feet, and then turn around and walk
10 feet back and sit down after surgery to ensure that they're safely
able to ambulate. "Use scores of 1 through 5 for each part of the
assessment," says Mr. Ham. "If it's a score of 3 or above at any point,
the patient is a fall risk." During the gait assessment, emphasize to
your patients that they should pump their legs before they stand up
and should always stand up slowly in case of dizziness. The OR staff
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