Assessment of nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding fall prevention for patients at Thien Hanh general Hospital and associated factors in 2024

Abstract

Objective: The study aims to describe the current state of knowledge, attitude, and practice of nurses on fall prevention for patients at Thien Hanh General Hospital in 2024 and identify some related factors. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive study with the participation of 187 nurses working at Thien Hanh General Hospital in 2024 to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and practices of fall prevention. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire, including items assessing knowledge, attitudes and practices of falls prevention. The toolkit is Vietnameseized based on research by Han, Lee and Kim (2020), with high reliability. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25 software with descriptive statistics and analysis of relationships between factors. Results: The percentage of nurses with knowledge about fall prevention was only 42.2%, showing that there is still a part of the nursing team that does not master the necessary measures in preventing falls. The percentage of nurses with a good attitude towards fall prevention is very low, only 16%, reflecting a lack of positive awareness about the importance of this practice in patient care. Despite this, 59.4% of nurses practice fall prevention at a good level, however, this result is still uneven. The results show that attitude has a strong correlation with fall prevention practices (r = 0.614, p < 0.001), showing that positive attitudes greatly influence the implementation of safety measures. Knowledge has a weaker correlation with practice (r = 0.293, p < 0.001) and attitude (r = 0.236, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Research at Thien Hanh General Hospital in 2024 shows that nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and practices of preventing falls are still limited, especially attitudes are not really positive. This result emphasizes the need for periodic training programs to raise awareness, improve attitudes and increase the effectiveness of fall prevention practices, especially for young nurses