Efforts to decrease patient falls is long standing and difficult. Defining a fall can be difficult in itself - the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators defines a fall as an "unplanned decent to the floor", whereas the World Health Organization defines a fall as an "event which results in a person coming to rest inadvertently on the ground". When you catch a patient, did he fall? Standard fall prevention strategies include proper risk assessment, patient and family education, proper risk identification (e.g. signs and wrist bands), proper footwear and a toileting schedule. With these multicomponent interventions, research indicates fall rates can be reduced by 30%. Successful implementation of fall programs include training, leadership support and changing the attitude that falls are inevitable. Although long standing and difficult, our struggle against falls can improve the safety of our patients.

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