Medical professionals should engage in advocacy in an attempt to address most of the risks and challenges affecting their patients. Falls are capable of resulting in injuries and extending patients’ hospitalization period. It affects both young and older people in different regions. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the economic, legal, and political factors that may contribute to the implementation of evidence-based or sustainable practice changes.
Economic Factors
The occurrence of falls can affect the quality of medical services available to different patients. The implementation of a practice change will present superior clinical guidelines that have the potential to minimize such sentinel events. From an economic perspective, any increase in a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) will present additional resources for transforming or improving care delivery and introducing superior fall prevention mechanisms (Wilson et al., 2016).
The additional costs associated with such sentinel events will disorient the quality and effectiveness of the healthcare industry. The recorded expenses can, therefore, inform new ideas or strategies for minimizing falls in different medical facilities. The end result is that increased savings will be made and allocated to meet other healthcare demands.
Legal Factors
Legal forces are contributors of policy changes and practice improvements in the health care sector. Hospitals can focus on emerging laws and regulations regarding this issue and go further to implement powerful evidence-based procedures in their respective units. Practitioners, health managers, and clinicians can introduce desirable changes since any fall can result in malpractice lawsuit, thereby affecting their professional goals. Institutions can also consider the nature of these sentinel events and embrace new preventative measures, procedures, or policies (Polit & Beck, 2018).
Most of the existing laws support every patient’s rights and autonomy. Since falls are capable of undermining such liberties, it becomes necessary for hospitals to introduce evidence-based changes that result in positive results and be on the safe side of the law.
Political Factors
Politics have continued to reshape people’s thoughts, engagements, economic goals, and policies. The decision to elect like-minded leaders means that new practice changes will emerge that can minimize the percentage of falls recorded in different facilities. Similarly, positive political situations in a given country or region will create the best environment for undertaking numerous researches and presenting superior practice changes.
More stakeholders will be willing to be involved and examine the nature of this health problem from different perspectives. The final result is that superior models or workplace practices will emerge that can improve the experiences of patients and minimize falls (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). The existence of a favorable political climate will empower or encourage more professionals to engage in advocacy and eventually support the introduction and implementation of evidence-based practices changes in different medical facilities.
Conclusion
The occurrence of falls in different settings and facilities makes it impossible for the affected individuals to record positive health outcomes. The introduction of new changes can make it possible for different clinicians to empower their patients and overcome the challenges associated with this sentinel event. Those involved should consider every existing or favorable political, economic, and legal factor in order to present evidence-based suggestions. Such measures will eventually support the introduction of powerful practice changes in different healthcare settings. The possible outcome is that the percentage of falls in hospitals will reduce significantly.
References
Polit, D. E., & Beck, C. T. (2018). Essentials of nursing research: Appraising evidence for nursing practice (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic Nursing, 36(1), 12-25. Web.
Wilson, D. S., Montie, M., Conlon, P., Reynolds, M., Ripley, R., & Titler, M. G. (2016). Nurses’ perceptions of implementing fall prevention interventions to mitigate patient-specific fall risk factors. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 38(8), 1012-1034. Web.