One person is all it takes to make a difference in preventing falls. No one knows that better than Moira McCarthy, B.S.N., R.N., chair of the Nursing Quality Council, who spearheaded the highly effective "See Something, Say Something" fall prevention program. "From 2022 to 2023, we realized that nurses were doing everything we could to prevent falls, but people were still falling," she says. "We couldn't do it alone anymore. So, we reached out to our essential services departments, and said, 'We need extra eyes and ears to help keep our patients safe and avoid falls.'"

The idea was born after an environmental services worker named DJ went above and beyond to support the nursing staff. "One day during his shift, he came to one of our nurses and said, 'The patient is getting out of bed. He's dangling his legs over. What should I do?' We thanked him and told him it was amazing that he spoke up – and we realized that people like DJ are in and out of patients’ rooms all the time," says Moira. "While not in direct patient care roles, they are part of our multidisciplinary team. We should be treating and educating them accordingly."

Moira and her managers took DJ's story and brought it to support service departments across the hospital, including environmental services, dining services, laboratory, security and maintenance. They were taught to watch out for patients wearing yellow gowns and/or yellow bracelets that indicate a high-fall risk. They were also told to check for information on the patient’s communication board. Then, Moira and her team helped them learn what to do next. "We attended their huddles and handed out badge cards that outlined what to do if you see someone about to fall. You can stay with the patient or press the call or staff assist button, or when in doubt, yell for help. We wanted to give them the tools to feel empowered to speak up and say something," Moira says.

In a year, the "See Something, Say Something" program was utilized hospital-wide. “It ended up reaching further than just our essential services," says Moira. "We had doctors who spoke up and said, 'I think we need to be talking to our patients more about falls.' They started incorporating it into their daily rounds, letting patients know if they were a high-fall risk and what to expect if so."

The results speak for themselves, with falls drastically decreasing across the hospital since the program started.

Moira says that one of the best results of the initiative has been watching the essential services staff become empowered to support patients. "We all work together for the good of the patient, but we learned through surveys that essential services workers often didn't feel part of the overall patient treatment team," says Moira. "Here are people working so hard every day that may not feel like they have a voice. After the program began, I began to hear that they felt like they were true members of the team that could make a difference by speaking up. That really made it so worthwhile."