Embedded Files
Our Site: Broadway Villa Post Acute
Our Site: Broadway Villa Post Acute
In the course Community Program Development, my classmates and I collaborated with a skilled nursing and long term care facility, Broadway Villa Post Acute, to establish a program targeting their needs. Broadway Villa Post Acute is a dynamic setting that serves a client population with a variety of diagnoses (e.g. hip replacements, strokes, orthopedics, dementia, etc.). Ultimately, their mission is to dignify long term care in the eyes of the world by providing a safe, comfortable, and therapeutic environment for their clients.
Location of Broadway Villa Post Acute
Our Fall Prevention Program!
Our Fall Prevention Program!
Through collaborating with staff at Broadway Villa Post Acute, we came to the conclusion that there is an obvious need for fall prevention services, especially with this site having, on average, more falls than the national average. In conjunction with their mission, we established a fall prevention program that touched directly on creating a safe/secure environment through empowering staff to utilize a universal approach to proactively address fall hazards. Our program specifically focused on fostering a safe space for discussion of fall risks, promoting interdisciplinary communication on how to prevent falls, and utilization of universal resources for determining fall risk. We did this through initiating a focus group at Broadway Villa that involved staff from all disciplines (nursing, OT, PT). During the group, we provided discussion topics relating to what fall prevention education currently looks like at the site, some of the biggest challenges with fall prevention, and what a universal process might look like moving forward. Following discussion, we provided them with reliable resources that are already in use within other facilities (e.g. fall risk assessments, fall prevention BINGO, STEADI older adult fall prevention) and resources we created based on the current evidence on fall prevention (e.g. a fall prevention powerpoint, a CARE poster, a patient room poster).
Our Fall Prevention Program Mission Statement
Handout for Fall Prevention Program Session:Lesson activities, learning objectives, & discussion questions
Patient Room Poster:Placed on outsides of patient rooms for interdiciplinary team use
CARE Poster:Addresses fall prevention and utilized in nursing stations
Development of My Occupational Lens
Development of My Occupational Lens
Overall, creating this program with my peers and in collaboration with Broadway Villa truly enhanced my occupational lens. I learned the value of communication, especially with the interdisciplinary team, as it fosters exchange of ideas to reach a more holistic understanding of complex issues. With fall prevention in particular, I learned how vital programming related to this topic can be as it enhances client safety, and also leads to a greater sense of psychosocial well-being and quality of life for clients by limiting long term health complications and preserving independence and confidence. The biggest challenge my group and I faced throughout this process was narrowing our focus of our program. Initially, we discussed targeted concepts related to cognition and meeting the meaningful occupational needs of clients. However, we realized that decreasing falls could help to tackle these more complex concepts in the long run, and I learned that starting with the root cause of issues can be most beneficial. I also learned that when implementing programs, it is useful to start small and with something as simple as a focus group because introducing new things slowly can allow for understanding and buy-in from staff/clients, and build motivation for developing even more complex programming.After completing this course, one thing I would like to take away is the importance of advocacy. Advocacy goes beyond merely expressing some support for a cause; it involves addressing important issues through raising awareness, informing/educating, and through grant writing to authority figures/agencies. Doing this can help to secure financial support, ensure program sustainability, and lead to positive impacts for sites I work with. In my future practice as an OT, I would like to remember that advocacy for the sites and clients I serve is not limited to simple actions; I can go beyond this through evaluation/research on key issues and promoting systems change.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse