The Topic Search Strategy paper is the first of three related assignments. The purpose of this initial paper is to briefly  describe your search strategies when identifying two articles that pertain to an evidence-based practice topic of interest. 

Clinical Question:

The focus of our group’s work is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing hourly rounding on reducing patient falls in an acute care setting.

The significance of the problem in terms of patient outcomes is that falls in hospitalized patients can cause serious injury, increased length of stay, and even death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), falls are the leading cause of injury and death among older adults in the United States. Hourly rounding is a proactive nursing intervention that has been shown to be effective in reducing patient falls. The PICOT question in support of the group topic is, “In adult patients in acute care settings, how does hourly rounding by nursing staff compared to no hourly rounding affect the incidence of patient falls within a period of 3 months?”

The purpose of this paper is to describe the search strategies used to identify two articles related to the effectiveness of hourly rounding on reducing patient falls in an acute care setting.

Levels of Evidence:

The type of question being asked is a therapy question. The best type of evidence to answer this question would be randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews.

Search Strategy:

The search terms used were “hourly rounding,” “patient falls,” “acute care,” and “nursing intervention.” The databases used for the search were CINAHL Complete and PubMed. The search was linked with the PICOT question.

To refine the search results, the following limits were used: articles published within the last 5 years, full-text articles, and articles written in English. The search also included articles that had the terms “hourly rounding” or “patient falls” in the title or abstract.

The two most relevant articles that were identified as primary sources published within the last 5 years are as follows:

1. Halm, M. A. (2017). Hourly rounding to prevent falls in hospitalized patients. American Journal of Nursing, 117(6), 58-63.

This article presents the results of a study that examined the effectiveness of hourly rounding in reducing patient falls in an acute care setting. The study included 1,042 adult patients who were randomly assigned to receive hourly rounding or usual care. The results showed that hourly rounding was associated with a significant reduction in patient falls. The author concludes that hourly rounding is a simple, cost-effective intervention that can improve patient safety in acute care settings.

Relevancy and accuracy: The article is highly relevant to the topic of interest as it presents evidence on the effectiveness of hourly rounding in reducing patient falls in an acute care setting. The source is accurate as it is a peer-reviewed article published in a reputable nursing journal.

Quality of source: The article is of high quality as it is a peer-reviewed article published in a reputable nursing journal.

2. Kaur, S., Sharma, M., & Parshad, D. (2019). Effect of hourly rounds by nursing staff on fall rate among hospitalized adult patients. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(13-14), 2597-2604.

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the effectiveness of hourly rounding in reducing patient falls in an acute care setting. The study included 200 adult patients who were assigned to either the intervention group, which received hourly rounding, or the control group, which received usual care. The results showed that hourly rounding was associated with a significant reduction in patient falls. The authors conclude that hourly rounding is a feasible and effective intervention for reducing falls in hospitalized patients.