The issue of falls in special-purpose homes

This bachelor thesis is focused on the falls and their problems in special-purpose homes. The aim was to map out the interventions and measures that are applied to prevent falls of patients/clients in special-purpose homes. Another aim was to find out the most frequent causes and circumstances of patients/clients falls and the opinion of nursing staff on the issue of falls and their solution in special-purpose homes. The work was divided into two parts. The first, theoretical part, describes the basic concepts of gerontology, geriatrics and the comprehensive geriatric assessment. Furthermore, there is a detailed description of falls, which includes the instability syndrome with falls, the phenomenology and etiology of the fall, the fall prevention, the fall complications and the nursing care after the fall. The next chapter describes special-purpose homes, their specifics and the principles of nursing care for people with dementia. The second part of this work is the empirical part. The research was carried out by qualitative research, by questioning and observation. In view of the objectives, 13 questions were created for the semi-structured interview. Ten nurses and four carers from five special-purpose homes attended the interviews. The obtained data were then processed using open coding, by the metod pencil and paper. Seven categorization groups from interviews and four categorization groups from observation were created. The results of the research show that the most common preventive measures in all facilities are compensatory aids, monitoring health status and the modified environment in special-purpose homes. The most frequent cause of falls of patients/clients in special-purpose homes is the state of health of the elderly, poor estimation of physical possibilities, confusion and restlessness. The opinion of nursing staff on the issue of falls in special-purpose homes is that dementia has a great impact on the falls and the individuality of each patient/client is important. Overall, research has shown that falls occur despite all the measures and may be related to the frequent cognitive disease that the pacients/clients often suffer from. It would also be appropriate to raise the awareness of all staff about the problematics