Aaron Raymond Stevenson
For nurses who need clinical answers, not just clinical guidelines. Every NHS acute ward nurse is now required to complete a Clinical Frailty Scale on every patient over 65, initiate falls risk assessments at every shift, screen for delirium at the bedside, and contribute to safe discharge planning for frail older adults. These are governance requirements, not suggestions. Yet the training that should underpin them is, in most NHS trusts, inconsistent at best. This handbook closes that gap. The Frailty and Falls Nursing Handbook gives ward nurses a clear, evidence-based foundation in frailty and falls nursing as it is actually practised on the acute ward: at handover, at 3am, in a four-bedded bay with three other patients who also need attention. It explains the Clinical Frailty Scale from its development in 2005 to its current nine-point NHS version, and teaches nurses how to score it accurately in complex presentations, including patients with dementia and those too unwell to give their own history. It covers the Morse Fall Scale in depth, including how to translate a risk score into an individualised care plan rather than a generic risk label. It addresses post-fall immediate management using the A-E assessment framework, with a systematic injury survey designed to detect hip fracture and head injury before a patient is moved from the floor. Additional chapters cover Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment and the nursing contribution to it, the 4AT delirium screening tool, the non-pharmacological delirium prevention bundle, polypharmacy and medication-related falls risk, rehabilitation nursing and the prevention of hospital-acquired deconditioning, and safe discharge planning within the NHS Home First framework. The final chapter addresses professional development pathways for nurses who want to advance their frailty practice. Each chapter opens with five learning objectives and closes with seven review questions. Clinical cases throughout the book use composite fictional patients to illustrate realistic ward scenarios, including situations where things go wrong and where the nursing response makes the clinical difference. This book is for readers who: Work as registered nurses, nursing associates, or healthcare assistants on NHS acute medical or surgical wards and want to develop confident, evidence-based frailty nursing practice. Nurses new to the NHS, internationally educated nurses, and nursing students on acute medical placements will find the clinical tools explained in the context they encounter them in practice. Band 6 and Band 7 nurses seeking a structured CPD resource in frailty and falls will find the evidence base and governance context to support ward-level quality improvement. For nurses who want to understand frailty nursing not as a form-filling requirement but as a clinical discipline with a clear evidence base, this handbook offers a practical and comprehensive starting point.
