The prevention of falls is an integral part of the safety culture of health institutions with mandatory fall prevention programs set within health care facilities. Care providers are key in identifying the risks of falls and in implementing strategic actions to prevent them. With the aim to better understand practices of fall prevention, we conducted a synthesis of qualitative evidence on care providers’ practices to prevent older people from falling in health care facilities. This synthesis is part of an integrative review of the role of care providers in fall prevention of adults aged 65 years and above. Primary studies were synthesized with the emerging core category of “a complex decision” and described by four emerging conditions that make that decision complex: (a) permanent threat of a fall, (b) continuous flow of information, (c) lack of control, and (d) ethical dilemmas and moral issues over the course of action. The present synthesis shows that before implementing preventive actions, care providers consider the conditions in which they are immersed, in this way situating their preventive actions in a clinical and a moral context.
Family caregivers of people with mental problems struggle not to lose them in a crisis and to maintain family ties. Primary care professionals must give importance to these links, because it determines their care strategies during a crisis and the strategies to conserve the family member.
Guides and protocols for the care of a fragile older person, particularly after a fall, should not only include care but also support to caregivers. Health professionals and especially nurses need to be aware and respond to the family caregivers needs after a fall. To the fall prevention initiatives already in place, it must be added that those who support family members to cope with the care of an older person who has had a fall.
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