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Continuing Education
Coming Soon
CE Geriatric Nursing Fall Prevention
The course teaches registered nurses how to assess fall risk, implement evidence‑based prevention strategies, and manage medication safety for older adults, integrating age‑related pharmacokinetics and mental health considerations.
Who Should Take This
Nurses working in acute, long‑term, rehabilitation, home health, or community settings who care for older patients and seek to deepen their competence in fall prevention, polypharmacy management, and cognitive‑behavioral assessment. They typically have a RN license and at least one year of experience with geriatric populations.
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
65 learning goals
1
Fall Risk Assessment
2 topics
Fall risk tools
- Identify validated fall risk assessment tools including the Morse Fall Scale, Hendrich II Fall Risk Model, and STEADI toolkit for community-dwelling older adults.
- Explain how to score the Morse Fall Scale including the six subscales of fall history, secondary diagnosis, ambulatory aid, IV access, gait, and mental status.
- Describe intrinsic fall risk factors including muscle weakness, gait instability, visual impairment, orthostatic hypotension, cognitive impairment, and urinary urgency.
- Describe extrinsic fall risk factors including environmental hazards, inappropriate footwear, lack of assistive devices, restraint use, and sedating medication effects.
- Analyze fall risk assessment data to stratify patients into risk categories and determine individualized fall prevention interventions based on identified risk factors.
Post-fall assessment and analysis
- Describe the post-fall assessment protocol including injury evaluation, neurological assessment, vital signs, root cause review, and documentation requirements.
- Analyze post-fall data including time, location, activity, contributing factors, and injury severity to identify systemic patterns and prevention opportunities.
2
Fall Prevention Interventions
2 topics
Evidence-based prevention strategies
- Identify evidence-based fall prevention interventions including intentional rounding, bed alarms, toileting schedules, non-slip footwear, and environmental modifications.
- Explain exercise and physical therapy interventions for fall prevention including strength training, balance exercises, tai chi programs, and gait training protocols.
- Describe mobility aid selection and proper use including walkers, canes, wheelchairs, and gait belts with fitting techniques and safety instruction methods.
- Explain orthostatic hypotension assessment and management including position change protocols, hydration strategies, and medication timing adjustments for prevention.
Fall prevention programs
- Analyze unit-level fall rate data, injury severity trends, and prevention bundle compliance to identify gaps in fall prevention effectiveness.
- Synthesize an individualized fall prevention care plan incorporating risk assessment, targeted interventions, patient and family education, and reassessment scheduling.
- Synthesize a facility-wide fall prevention program incorporating standardized risk assessment, tiered interventions, staff education, and outcome monitoring metrics.
3
Polypharmacy and Beers Criteria
2 topics
Polypharmacy assessment
- Identify the definition of polypharmacy and describe its prevalence, contributing factors, and associated risks in geriatric patients including falls and adverse drug events.
- Explain medication reconciliation processes for geriatric patients including comprehensive medication review, OTC assessment, supplement inventory, and brown bag reviews.
- Describe deprescribing strategies including identifying unnecessary medications, risk-benefit assessment, tapering protocols, monitoring after discontinuation, and communication.
AGS Beers Criteria application
- Identify the purpose and structure of the AGS Beers Criteria including PIMs to avoid, drug-disease interactions, drug-drug interactions, and dose adjustments for renal function.
- Describe commonly flagged Beers Criteria medications including benzodiazepines, anticholinergics, NSAIDs, first-generation antihistamines, and their geriatric-specific risks.
- Explain the anticholinergic burden concept including cumulative effects of multiple anticholinergic medications on cognition, falls, constipation, and urinary retention.
- Analyze a geriatric patient's medication list against Beers Criteria to identify PIMs, calculate anticholinergic burden, and recommend safer therapeutic alternatives.
4
Age-Related Pharmacokinetics
2 topics
Pharmacokinetic changes
- Explain age-related changes in drug absorption including decreased gastric acid production, reduced GI motility, and altered first-pass metabolism effects.
- Describe age-related changes in drug distribution including increased body fat percentage, decreased lean body mass, reduced serum albumin, and altered volume of distribution.
- Explain age-related changes in drug metabolism and excretion including reduced hepatic blood flow, decreased CYP450 enzyme activity, and declining glomerular filtration rate.
Clinical implications
- Describe the start low go slow principle for geriatric medication dosing and explain how altered pharmacokinetics necessitate dose adjustments and extended monitoring periods.
- Identify medications requiring renal dose adjustment in older adults and describe creatinine clearance estimation using the Cockcroft-Gault equation and its clinical limitations.
- Analyze clinical implications of altered pharmacokinetics in geriatric patients to determine dose adjustments, monitoring parameters, and adverse effect surveillance plans.
5
Delirium Dementia and Depression
2 topics
Differentiation and screening
- Identify the distinguishing features of delirium, dementia, and depression including onset pattern, course, attention, cognition, consciousness level, and reversibility.
- Describe delirium screening tools including the CAM, CAM-ICU, and 4AT and explain their scoring criteria and appropriate clinical application settings.
- Explain common causes of delirium in hospitalized older adults including medications, infections, metabolic disturbances, pain, constipation, and environmental factors.
- Describe dementia types including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia, and frontotemporal dementia with their distinguishing clinical presentations.
- Analyze clinical presentations to differentiate delirium from baseline dementia and depression and identify delirium superimposed on dementia requiring urgent evaluation.
Delirium prevention and management
- Identify evidence-based delirium prevention strategies including reorientation protocols, sleep hygiene promotion, early mobilization, hydration, and medication review.
- Describe non-pharmacological delirium management including environmental modifications, communication strategies, family involvement, and activity programming approaches.
- Synthesize a delirium prevention and management protocol for a hospital unit incorporating screening schedules, prevention bundles, treatment algorithms, and staff education.
6
Elder Abuse Screening
1 topic
Recognition and response
- Identify types of elder abuse including physical, emotional, sexual, financial exploitation, neglect, self-neglect, and abandonment with their clinical indicators.
- Describe elder abuse screening tools including the Elder Abuse Suspicion Index and H-S/EAST and explain integration into routine geriatric assessment workflows.
- Explain mandatory reporting requirements for suspected elder abuse including state-specific obligations, Adult Protective Services referral, and documentation standards.
- Analyze clinical scenarios to identify potential elder abuse indicators and differentiate abuse-related findings from age-related changes or medical conditions.
- Describe the nursing role in elder abuse prevention including caregiver stress assessment, community resource referral, safety planning, and interdisciplinary team collaboration.
7
Geriatric Syndromes
2 topics
Common syndromes and assessment
- Identify geriatric syndromes including frailty, sarcopenia, urinary incontinence, malnutrition, and pressure injuries and describe their interrelated multifactorial nature.
- Describe functional assessment tools including the Katz ADL Index, Lawton IADL Scale, Timed Up and Go test, and grip strength measurement with scoring interpretation.
- Explain nutritional assessment in older adults including the MNA screening tool, unintentional weight loss evaluation, dysphagia screening, and supplementation strategies.
- Describe frailty assessment using the Fried phenotype criteria including unintentional weight loss, exhaustion, low physical activity, slow walking speed, and weak grip strength.
- Analyze comprehensive geriatric assessment findings to identify interacting syndromes and prioritize interventions addressing multiple domains simultaneously.
Urinary incontinence
- Describe types of urinary incontinence including stress, urge, overflow, functional, and mixed with their evaluation approaches in older adult patients.
- Explain non-pharmacological incontinence management including pelvic floor exercises, bladder training, prompted voiding schedules, and environmental accessibility modifications.
- Analyze the impact of urinary incontinence on fall risk, skin integrity, social isolation, and quality of life and develop integrated management approaches.
8
Geriatric Care Models and Transitions
1 topic
Care models
- Describe geriatric-specific care models including NICHE, ACE units, HELP program, and geriatric consultation services with their evidence-based outcomes.
- Explain care transition challenges for older adults including medication discrepancies, communication gaps, caregiver burden, and hospital readmission risk factors.
- Describe the INTERACT program for skilled nursing facilities including early identification of condition changes, SBAR communication, and avoidable hospitalization reduction.
- Analyze geriatric patient scenarios to identify high-risk transition points and recommend evidence-based interventions to reduce hospital readmission rates.
- Synthesize a transitions of care plan for a complex geriatric patient incorporating medication reconciliation, caregiver education, follow-up coordination, and community resources.
9
Restraint Reduction
1 topic
Regulations and alternatives
- Identify CMS restraint regulations including least restrictive alternative requirements, physician order mandates, time-limited use, and monitoring frequency standards.
- Describe evidence-based restraint alternatives including bed alarm systems, low beds, sitters, diversional activities, environmental modifications, and comfort measures.
- Explain the risks associated with physical restraint use including strangulation, skin breakdown, agitation escalation, functional decline, and psychological harm.
- Analyze clinical scenarios involving agitated or at-risk geriatric patients to determine appropriate restraint alternatives while maintaining patient safety and dignity.
- Synthesize a restraint reduction program incorporating staff education, alternative intervention protocols, data monitoring, and culture change strategies.
10
End-of-Life and Advance Care Planning
2 topics
Advance care planning
- Describe advance care planning components including advance directives, healthcare proxy designation, POLST or MOLST forms, and goals of care conversation frameworks.
- Explain palliative care principles for geriatric patients including symptom management, quality of life focus, and integration with curative or disease-modifying treatments.
- Describe hospice eligibility criteria, Medicare hospice benefit levels of care, and the nursing role in facilitating hospice referrals and transition discussions.
Goals of care conversations
- Explain structured goals of care conversation models including the REMAP framework and Serious Illness Conversation Guide for discussions with older adults and families.
- Describe cultural and spiritual considerations in end-of-life care planning including diverse perspectives on death, truth-telling norms, and family decision-making roles.
- Analyze complex end-of-life scenarios involving conflicting family preferences, incapacitated patients, and unclear advance directives to determine ethically sound nursing actions.
- Synthesize a comprehensive geriatric nursing competency program integrating fall prevention, medication safety, cognitive assessment, and functional preservation strategies.
Scope
Included Topics
- Fall risk assessment using Morse Fall Scale, Hendrich II, and STEADI toolkit with intrinsic and extrinsic risk factor identification.
- Evidence-based fall prevention interventions including exercise programs, environmental modifications, mobility aids, and orthostatic hypotension management.
- Polypharmacy assessment, deprescribing strategies, AGS Beers Criteria, and anticholinergic burden calculation.
- Age-related pharmacokinetic changes affecting drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion with clinical dosing implications.
- Differentiation of delirium, dementia, and depression using screening tools, and delirium prevention and management protocols.
- Elder abuse types, screening tools, mandatory reporting requirements, and clinical indicator recognition and response.
- Geriatric syndromes including frailty, sarcopenia, incontinence, malnutrition, and comprehensive geriatric assessment tools.
- Geriatric care models, care transition challenges, INTERACT program, and hospital readmission prevention strategies.
- Restraint reduction regulations, alternatives, risks, and culture change program implementation.
- Advance care planning, palliative care principles, hospice referral, and goals of care conversation frameworks.
Not Covered
- Advanced gerontological pharmacology or pharmacogenomics beyond clinical nursing understanding.
- Geriatric psychiatry treatment protocols beyond screening, differentiation, and basic management.
- Long-term care facility administration or regulatory compliance beyond direct clinical nursing practice.
- Advanced dementia research methodologies or clinical trial design beyond evidence-based practice application.
- Geriatric surgical management or perioperative care beyond nursing assessment and fall prevention.
CE Geriatric Nursing Fall Prevention is coming soon
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