Falls are essentially the primary source of nonfatal injuries and suffering related

Falls are essentially the primary source of nonfatal injuries and suffering related hospitalization in the United States. Injuries caused by falls also increase the cost of care for the patients by 61%. The statistics are the indications that the individuals, and authorities have to look for ways to help reduce falls. As such, reducing falls in hospitals has been a key research topic for most authors.Rounding by nurses is the organized process whereby the nursing staff in intense consideration wards and emergency clinics just as home staff goes around doing customary checks to the individual patients at the particular set interims, whether it be hourly or following thirty minutes. At this interval, the nurses carry out some scheduled tasks and assess the conditions of the patients. Article Selection and Summary As I was looking at the requirements in fulfilling this research article summary, I noticed that we were able to choose our topic of interest as long as it was on the syllabus. The topic that grabbed my attention was Patient Safety. However, if one were to look at that topic alone, it seems extremely broad. I had to further narrow it down and pose myself a specific question—” What bothers you the most in reference to Patient Safety?”. I was able to link patient safety with rounding, and how rounding positively affects patient falls in acute care. The database I chose was CINAHL as it was conducive to my learning environment. The search results were limited by specific phrases like patient safety, acute care, patient falls, and rounding. The filters that were applied in addition were: published within the last five years, peer reviewed, published in English, and first author is a nurse.Purpose of the StudyThe article by Hicks (2015) is an integrative literature review that examines if nurse rounding helps in reducing the incidences of falls among patients in the United States Hospitals. Hourly rounding of nurses is considered in the article as a significant intervention in ensuring the patients’ safety. Another objective was to find if the availability of nurses in the facility can help in improving the recovery of patients in acute careResearch design and MethodologyThe author utilizes an integrative approach to the literature review in examining the topic. Different independent studies were selected and summarized to give more knowledge and conclusions as a guide to nursing practices. Relevant articles written between 2014 and 2019 were considered for information and data. Several healthcare journals were reviewed, and the materials that contained the keywords, rounding, acute care, and falling were considered. Those that utilized qualitative and quantitative designs presented in the English language were the only ones considered for review. Results and Findings of the StudyAccording to the findings, care for people who are at higher risk of falling and those who have already occurred injuries and harms is vital. For this care to be effective, health professionals like nurses are needed. The nurses have to identify the patients who are at a higher possibility of falling. Falls in acute care can be directly linked to the quality of care offered by the nurses. Nursing care given to the fall victims is essential in the recovery process. Nurse-led safety strategy is considered as an effect of reducing the number of patients falling.On the other hand, constant checking on patients is also an effective way of reducing fall incidents. Nurses take the initiative of regularly visiting the patients at intervals to see what they require. Constant rounding by nurses to check on the patients is vital. As the nurses regularly check the patients, the chances of falling are significantly reduced. Rounding can be made hourly based on the number of nurses at the facility and the need for hospitalized individuals. Patients need constant communication with health officials to reduce anxiety. Ideally, constant nurse-patient engagement improves patient confidence and makes them more comfortable with their conditions. Patients need to know when the next staff will attend to them.Several journals reviewed showed that in acute care, rounding is vital (Hicks, 2015). In hospitals where rounding is continuously done, cases of falling are minimal. Satisfaction among the patients caused by constant visits also speeds up the recovery process. Needs of patients such as toileting, repositioning is quickly taken care of when the appointment is made hourly. Nurses also help the patients to acclimatize with the hospital environment. Where nurses assist the patients, trust, and right relationship develop hence quick recovery.On the contrary, a constant hourly visit by nurses are not readily achievable. Most hospitals are reported to have fewer medical staff. For the hourly rounding to be very practical, several nurses have to take part. Nurses also have to be motivated, so they have to visit the patients every hour. Some may not see the need to do so. Proper education to the nurses on how the processes help the patients has to be conducted appropriately. The facility has to make sure enough nurses are available so that the nurses do not view the hourly rounding as overworking to them. Limitation of the StudyThe limitation of this review article was that it only included non-randomized studies with small sample size with limited length of time. Some of the five studies utilized in this review were less than one year. Apart from being limited in the knowledge of the topic they failed to illustrate the relationship between hourly rounding and effects on the acute care patients. Due to lack of consistency in these studies, it is not really certain that the hourly rounding directly had positive impacts in reducing falls among the acute care patients. This opens huge future study gap for the researchers who are interested in patients’ safety in hospitals.Relevance for Nursing PracticeThe implication for practice is that it encourages organizations to introduce adequate rounding by the nurses in order to reduce the rate of falls in their acute care. The findings of this study endorse the inclusion of leadership to engage nursing staff in successful fall prevention in acute care and hospital set up. This is backed up by a further study by Goldsack, Bergey, Mascioli, and Cunningham (2015), that associated reduction of falls with fostering staff accountability systems. Ideally, if an organization employs adequate number of nurse staffs in their set ups the chances of going around in shifts is high and safety to the patients is intensified.ConclusionIn conclusion, patients’ falls can be reduced with proper care. Patients with acute care often fall because they try to do work independently without the involvement of health officials. If the number of rounds taken by nurses is increased, then it means nurses will have more time with sick individuals to take care of their needs. If more attention is given to the same patients, the fall rates will significantly decrease.