Date of Conferral

8-15-2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Maria Revell

Abstract

Summary In this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project, I evaluated whether the project site organization’s implementation of leadership rounding reduced patient falls within a medical-surgical unit. Despite established fall prevention strategies, the unit continued to experience ongoing incidents, prompting the implementation of structured leadership rounding. The practice-focused question assessed changes in fall rates over a 3-month postintervention period compared to the preceding 3 months. A retrospective chart review was conducted from December 2023 to June 2024, excluding March 2024 due to partial implementation. I used descriptive statistics to analyze trends. The average monthly fall rate remained stable at 2.67 before and after the implementation of the leadership rounding initiative. However, the median declined from three to two, suggesting a downward shift in monthly fall incidents. Notable reductions included a 33% decrease in monthly patient falls from February to April and a 25% decrease from the preleadership rounding average to June. Conversely, May showed a 49.8% increase in falls compared to the baseline, and the standard deviation rose from 0.58 to 1.15, indicating greater variability in postintervention fall rates. Although leadership rounding did not produce a sustained fall rate reduction, it remains an important tool because it enables nurse leaders to proactively identify and address fall risks at the bedside, reinforcing a diverse safety culture. From a social change perspective, it helps promote equitable care by standardizing safety practices, reducing outcome variability, and building trust among diverse patient populations.

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