The Relationship between Nurses’ Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Leadership Support in Preventing Patient Falls

Ahmed I. Alomar1, Manal H. Alessa2, Ali Al Yasin2, Omar G. Baker3, Margaret Aitchison2, Hammed J. Alenazi2, Tahani M. Alenazi2, Hester M. Prinsloo2,
Hassan Qattan2, Shini Cherian2,

(1) Corresponding author, General Nursing Administration, Security Forces Hospital Program – Riyadh, KSA
(2) General Nursing Administration, Security Forces Hospital Program – Riyadh, KSA
(3) Professor department of community and mental health Nursing, College of Nursing, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Corresponding author:
Ahmed I. Alomar, RN, MSN
Email: A7_Ib@outlook.sa

Received: May 2024; Accepted: June 2024; Published: July 2024
Citation: Alomar et al. The Relationship between Nurses’ Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Leadership Support in Preventing Patient Falls. Middle East Journal of Nursing 2024; 18(2): 3-10. DOI: 10.5742/MEJN2024.9378051

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ABSTRACT

Incidents of patients falling are a notable issue in public health and a frequent negative occurrence in hospitals, often leading to injuries such as trauma, fractures, or brain damage, which significantly affect patients’ overall well-being. At the Security Forces Hospital, the frequency of patient falls is consistent with global norms, but the fact that injuries result from around 30% of cases is problematic. This study applied a quantitative, cross-sectional approach to evaluate nursing staff’s understanding of patient fall prevention. The primary objective was to assess the knowledge of patient fall prevention of the nursing staff and whether leadership support and nurses’ self-efficacy impacted efforts to prevent falls. The result-oriented findings brought to light crucial areas in which nurses had knowledge gaps regarding fall prevention, with an overwhelming figure of 75.7% of the respondents recognizing non-contributory factors for falls, such as antibiotics, but relatively few (31.3%) who correctly mentioned multifaceted interventions as essential. Such findings show inherent opportunities for developing more effective accident prevention practices to improve patient safety in the hospital. This study reiterates that proactive educational programs and leadership play crucial roles in considerably reducing patient falls.

Keywords: Patient falls, injury prevention, nursing staff, leadership support, fall prevention practices