Knowledge, Attitudes on Fall and Awareness of Hospitalized Patient’s Fall Risk Factors Among the Nurses Working in Tertiary Care Hospitals.

Back ground: Fall is the most common patient safety incident in health care organization. This study was initiated to obtain information regarding knowledge & attitude on fall and awareness of fall risk factors among nurses to device evidence based and multidisciplinary educational and training programme to improve patient safety and thereby reducing morbidity and mortality associated with fall. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional survey study was conducted among 339 registered nurses working in Tertiary care hospitals across Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Modified version of previously validated standard questionnaire was administered by the investigators through online survey method to explore the level of knowledge &attitude on fall and awareness of inpatient fall risk factors among Nurses. Results: In this study, 15.6% of participants had adequate knowledge on fall, 57.2% had favorable attitude towards fall and 38.3% adequate awareness on fall risk factors. Years of experience in nursing has statistical significant association with level of knowledge on fall. The participant’s attitude towards fall had statistical significant relationship with age, education, experience in nursing and previous patient fall experience. The correlation between fall knowledge, attitude of fall and awareness of fall risk factors were highly significant. Majority of the participants expressed their favorable attitude towards need for fall preventive education. Conclusion: In our study, it is evident that there is a void which has to be filled to improve the knowledge, attitude and awareness on fall and its risk factors .There is a need for extensive education and holistic, multifactorial and interdisciplinary training program to be undertaken through various health care organizations.