Role of the Champion
Unit based champions are typically nurses on the units who are available as Fall TIPS resources. Champions are responsible for:
Patient engagement may be a change in the culture of patient care at your hospital. If this is the case, champions should make sure clinical staff are aware of this change and its benefits. Our research has shown that patient engagement is key to Fall TIPS efficacy.
Clinical staff should engage patients in all steps of the 3-Step Fall Prevention Process
We understand that engaging patients is a change in the culture of patient safety. To help your clinical staff integrate routinely engaging patients in their practice, we have developed exercises to practice with.
The Fall TIPS team has developed a set of audit instructions as a tool to guide champions’ audit training. Please see and download:
Fall TIPS Audit Instructions
A guide on how to conduct the Fall TIPS Audit.
Fall TIPS Audit Reliability Guide
A guide to ensure that all auditors complete the audits consistently.
After reviewing the audit instructions with the champions, conduct one or two example audits with patients, while the champion observes. Afterward, discuss the experience with the champion, soliciting their questions and observations.
Once the champion has observed a couple of patient audits, have them conduct an audit or two, until they feel comfortable. Afterward, provide constructive feedback, noting what went well in the conversation, and what to work on next time. The peer feedback piece is as important as the audit itself. Here is a link to some Peer Feedback Exercises to help you become comfortable in delivering this kind of feedback.
Peer-to-peer feedback is critically important to successful Fall TIPS implementation. As monthly feedback comes in, champions can see areas of success and needed improvement. By following up with nurses, champions can address any knowledge gaps or other barriers to Fall TIPS completion and engage nursing staff in brainstorming workarounds or solutions.
Some examples of challenges or barriers that may come up from the audits include:
Next step: Plan Implementation