Capezuti E, Talerico KA, Cochran I, Becker H, Strumpf N, Evans L. Individualized interventions to prevent bed-related falls and reduce siderail use. Journal of Gerontological Nursing. 1999;25(11):26-34.

Five situations that often impair siderail use: memory disorder, impaired mobility, injury risk, nocturia/incontinence, and sleep disturbance. As nursing homes work toward meeting the Health Care Financing Administration's mandate to examine siderail use, administrators and staff need to implement interventions that support safety and individualize care for residents. While no one intervention represents a singular solution to siderail use, there is a range of interventions tailored to individual needs. This article describes the process of selecting individualized interventions to reduce bed-related falls.

Cameron ID, Stafford B, Cumming RG, et al. Hip protectors improve falls self-efficacy. Age & Ageing. 2000 Jan;29(1):57-62.

This article describes study of the effect of use of external hip protectors on subjects' fear of falling and falls self-efficacy (belief in their own ability to avoid falling) and concludes that hip protectors do improve falls self-efficacy.

Bulter M, Norton R, Lee-Joe T, Coggan C. Preventing falls and fall-related injuries among older people living in institutions: Current practice and future opportunities. New Zealand Medical Journal. 1998 Sept 25;111(1074):359-361.

This article describes a study in Auckland, New Zealand, to identify existing falls prevention programs and support for future initiatives among residential institutions for the elderly. The authors conclude that the current use of fall prevention strategies in institutions is encouraging but that the strategies being employed are not consistent with current evidence about effectiveness.

Brown JS, Vittinghoff E, Wyman JF, et al. Urinary incontinence: Does it increase risk for falls and fractures? Study of Osteoporotic Fractures Research Group. Journal of the American Geriatric Society. 2000 Jul;48(7):721-725.

This article reviews a study of older women to determine if urinary urge incontinence is associated with risk of falls and fractures (non-spinal). The authors conclude that weekly or more frequent urge incontinence was associated independently with an increased risk of falls and (non-spine and non-traumatic) fractures in older women.

Intensive safety effort cuts falls, ulcers, and drug errors at once disgraced FL hospital. Clinical Resource Management. 2000 Oct;1(10): 148-151.

Drug errors, hospital-acquired pressure injuries, and patient falls are the most frequent adverse events in hospitals. Following a serious medical error in 1995, University Community Hospital in Tampa, Florida, created a data-driven patient safety program that has led to reductions in all three categories of error.

Alcee D. The experience of a community hospital in quantifying and reducing patient falls. Journal of Nursing Care Quality. 2000 Apr;14(3): 43-53.

The author reviews patient falls in a 248-bed acute care community hospital in order to quantify the number of patient falls and identify what factors precipitated these falls. The article reports these results and describes specific measures that were implemented in an attempt to reduce the number of falls in the organization.

Rivara FP, Grossman DC, Cummings P. Injury prevention: First of two parts. New England Journal of Medicine. 1997;337(8):543-548.

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Morse JM
Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Sage Publications; 1997

This book is the product of the author's eight years of research into patient falls and how to prevent them.  The book also contains the Morse Fall Scale, which predicts the likelihood of a patient fall.

Perell KL, Nelson A, Goldman RL, Luther SL, Prieto-Lewis N, Rubenstein LZ. Fall risk assessment measures: An analytic review. Journal of Gerontology. 2001;56(12):M761-M766.

The authors of this article attempt to summarize existing fall risk assessment scales to enable more informed choices regarding their use.

Vincent C (ed), et al
London, England: BMJ Publishing; 2001

Standard text reflects developments in the field and includes a new section on the conditions of safe practice. Text is research-based but the emphasis is on addressing practical clinical problems, reducing adverse events, and enhancing patient safety.