Fall Prevention, Essay Example

This paper is a summary of activities that occurred in conjunction with a unit about fall prevention.  I was placed into a group at the nursing home that was in charge of providing a trivia game for the residents.  The layout of the game functioned as follows.  Each resident at the home was instructed to throw a bean bag onto the board- the location of the bean bag on the board would determine the question asked to the individual.  The questions were related to fall management and protection.  If the resident answered the question correctly, then they were given a prize.  If the resident did not answer the question correctly, there were not points awarded.  Overall, we thought the game was a productive use of time that also gave the residents practical facts and knowledge about falls.

Detailed discussion of my role in planning, implementing and facilitating the service delivery project.

In order to make sure the game was a success, I was in charge of researching and asking the residents various questions about fall management.  My first role was to research the questions at length in order to understand what facts are key about fall management.  Since I did not explicitly know what I would ask, or for that matter the key points to grasp, I did internet research and a literature review in order to ascertain what facts would be relevant for the residents at the nursing home.  After a critical mass was achieved, I then put those facts into a number of questions for the nursing home residents- I also helped my group members, some of which who also had to ask questions, what issues and topics may be of interest to the residents.

After the research process and consultation process among group members was completed,  I also was in charge of asking questions to the residents during the trivia game.  Although I was quite nervous, and not necessarily a “good” public speaker, I delivered the questions ok, and the residents seemed to be pleased regarding the game.  They also seeming received good tips and knowledge about preventing falls in the nursing home.

Detailed discussion of my fellow students role in planning, implementing and facilitating the service delivery project. My discussion should include a description of the roles of my group members and how they contributed to the group process.

My group members also played a key role in facilitating the game.  They also helped with the research pertaining to the game including gathering facts and assembling questions for the residents.  The group was more in charge of the details behind the process, while I gathered information and understood the main issues related to falls. When others were asking the residents questions, I encouraged the residents to answer the questions.

Assess whether the goal of the group were met and give specific reasons and or examples to support your position.

Overall, I think the goal of our group was met for a number of reasons.  First, the group’s goal was to raise overall awareness of falls in a nursing home setting.  I believe this goal was achieved with the various groups’ presentation, and with our trivia game that tried to give them evidence-based facts about how they could prevent falls.

A second, and connected aim, was to create better relations between the occupational therapists and the residents.  Often times, there is tension between the two, especially at the beginning of the process.  This exercise was also meant to help them understand our work better, and that we are working together in order to achieve common goals.

What are the strategies utilizing in planning, implementing and facilitating the falls prevention group?

The strategies in planning for the activity was simply to increase awareness, by also catching the attention of the residents.  This served as the main thought throughout the planning and implementing stage.  The facilitating stage’s strategy was marginally different: That is, we wanted to obviously carry through the strategic intention of raising awareness, but we also wanted to do that through a lively engagement with the audience.  If we collated useful facts, but no one cared or paid attention ,the fall prevention group would still be considered a failure- group participation and enthusiasm is  very important.

Explain why you choose the strategies and discussed their effectiveness or ineffectiveness during the group process

The strategies overall were very effective.  The key was to gain critical facts that would be of interest to the residents- I believe we met that goal.  In the future, we could work more on execution, particularly on a more compelling medium to educate the residents.

If given the opportunity to participate in this service delivery project again, what would you do differently and why?

If I was asked to participate again in the service delivery project again, I would try to be more creative in the delivery of content to the residents.  That is, I would look to deliver the content through more “colorful” means such as either a skit, dance, or singing.  While the trivia game was a good idea, a better choice would be to engage the audience more directly in an entertaining manner.