I was completing my Royal College of Nursing Clinical Leadership Programme and as part of this I had to complete a service improvement project.I chose to do my project on falls prevention on one of our older persons wards, my idea was to use alternative lighting at night time to aid mobility.
I did some research with our governance department and identified a ward area which had high numbers of falls at night time with patients attempting to use the toilet or commode.
I contacted key stake holders to engage them with my idea. I applied for funding through our community partnership fund and £180 was approved.
I purchased my equipment online, which included toilet sensors, glow in the dark paint, luminous and reflective tapes for mobility aids, glow in the dark foot prints, light switches and water closet signs.The initiative was launched in June 2018 and I plan to reconvene with our governance department to map the numbers of falls so I can compare data to measure the success of the project. If the project is successful then we can roll it out further across the Trust to other wards.