Abstract

Background: Patient falls have nursing-sensitive outcomes, and nurses have a unique role in preventing them.We adapted the USA questionnaire to the Chinese version to understand the views of Taiwanese nurses on the risk factors for injurious falls.

Methods: This studywas divided into two phases. In the first phase, based on Tzeng & Yin's English questionnaires of the Injurious Fall Risk Factors and Fall Prevention Interventions Survey, we translated and developed Chinese questionnaires that were culturally sensitive. The second phase, a cross-sectional study with purposive sampling, collected nurses' views on risk factors for injurious falls in Taiwan.

Results: The Chinese version of the questionnaire has two more items than the original, namely "use of non-narcotic analgesics" and "no caregiver accompaniment," content validity index (CVI' Expert Validity): CVI = 0.88, and internal consistency reliability: Cronbach's α = 0.98. Of 225 registered nurses, 220 (97.8%) were females, 70.7 % (n = 159) were aged 25-45 years, mean work experience was 8.28 years, and 86.7% (n = 195) received fall prevention education within a year. Among the frequent risk factors, 70% were associated with diseases and physical status. Out of the top 10 most preventable risk factors, 4 each were environment-related and improper or defective equipment use-related.

Conclusion: The two additional risk factors in Taiwan may be because of differences in medication policy, drug use habits, and patient companionship culture between Taiwan and United States. The development process of this questionnaire and the topics of cultural differences discussed can be used as references for developing culturally adaptive questionnaires.