Leadership Research

Medical professionals need to address the ethical/political issues that lead to falls in the clinical setting. However, obstacles and conflicting factors have prevented the agency from implementing security protocols. Key barriers identified included high nurse workload and staffing shortages, scarce resources and unmotivated clinical staff, and a lack of safety-conscious culture.

Heavy workload and insufficient manpower

A number of institutional factors make nurses ineffective. Most nurses are overworked and there are so few of them. Zecevic, Li, Ngo, Halligan, and Kothari (2017) confirmed that the major barriers to falls prevention management are high workload and understaffing. In this setting, staff-to-patient ratios were well below recommended best practice guidelines, while patient enrollments continued to increase. Thus, high demand for patient care and low staffing levels limit physicians’ focus on fall prevention.

resource constraints and lack of motivation

Enhancing patient safety requires substantial resources that are lacking in most healthcare organizations. Zecevice et al. (2017) found that most hospitals have limited resources, which hinder effective falls prevention. For example, clinical organizations face the challenge of using an appropriate security-enhancing structure. Nurses need to be motivated to encourage this