— College of Allied Health Professions — Patient Safety — CAPTURE Falls — Roadmap — Fall Risk Reduction Interventions — Universal Interventions to Reduce Fall Risk for All Patients — Patient/Family Education

Patient/Family Education

Patient and family education is a cornerstone of health care. Some patients and families may not appreciate how much an acute change in medical status or being in an unfamiliar environment can have on their risk of falling. Education can be delivered in many forms (print, verbal, demonstration) and should involve consistent messaging across staff. Education may need to be adapted to how the patient can most easily receive it (e.g. in the case of cognitive or sensory impairments).

Patient/Family Education Resources

Audio/Visual Resources

Health Literacy: The webinar Best Practices in Health Literacy and Patient and Family Education created by the UNMC CAPTURE Falls team describes national initiatives to improve health literacy and best practices to improve written and verbal patient/family education specific to fall risk reduction.

Print Resources

Patient and Family Perspectives: Fall Risk Reduction from the Perspective of Patients and Families created by the CAPTURE Falls Team provides ideas for how to best engage patients and families in fall risk reduction.
Hospital Falls Prevention with Patient Education: A review paper published in 2020 and freely available in BMC Geriatrics summarizes current literature regarding patient falls prevention education. Specific topics include content of education, mode of delivery, the integration of educational principles or evidence-based behavior change models, and the outcomes of the education.

Patient/Family Education Tools

Communication Tip Sheet: The communication tip sheet adapted from Geriatric Physical Therapy provides a list of strategies to facilitate communication with older adults, as well as those with visual or hearing impairments.
Everyday Words: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Everyday Words for Public Health Communication provides a glossary of health-related terms and suggested common, everyday alternatives used in plain language sentences.
Health Literacy Toolkit: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit provides tools to improve spoken and written communication for patients.
Key Educational Points: Tool 3L: Patient and Family Education in the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Fall Prevention Toolkit provides a list of key educational points about fall risk reduction that can be included in patient education materials.
Mini-Cog: The Mini-Cog: A Cognitive “Vital Signs” Measure for Dementia Screening, originally published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry in 2000, provides a quick screen for dementia to help staff know if they need to adjust their patient education strategies.
Patient/Family Handout: Moving Around Safely in Hospital – Information for Patients, Families and Carers from the Clinical Excellence Commission of the New South Wales (Australia) Ministry of Health is an example of an educational handout that can be provided to patients and families.
Plain Language: The National Institutes of Health Plain Language: Getting Started or Brushing Up provides multiple tips to make written materials clear and visually appealing.
Teach Back: Using Teach Back to Redesign Patient Teaching provides a step-by-step process for how to implement a teach back strategy into patient education. This document also includes a knowledge test and return demonstration checklist.
Toolkit for Written Material: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Toolkit for Making Written Material Clear and Effective provides a set of tools that can make written materials easier for people to read, understand, and use.