Effects of Impact-Absorbing Flooring in Residential Care from the Perspectives of Enrolled Nurses

ABSTRACT

Falls are a daily occurrence in nursing homes and few interventions for reducing fall-related injuries have proven to be effective. Impact absorbing flooring (IAF) in residential care has shown promising results in reducing fall-injuries and in the process of developing and implementing IAF all aspects are valuable to explore. Therefore, the aim of this qualitative study is to describe the enrolled nurses (ENs) experiences of IAF. We carried out focus group interviews with ENs and used content analysis to process the data. The ENs experienced both negative and positive aspects with the IAF. Importantly, the ENs perceived the IAF as effective in preventing fall-injuries. They also appreciated the improvements in acoustics. Negative aspects were that the flooring initially was challenging to walk on and that it made it harder to maneuver heavy equipment. A significant and transferable finding in this study was the importance of the ENs' perceived difficulty in preventing fall-injuries amongst elderly people living in nursing homes. This seemed to be a driving force to accept the intervention. Although IAF affects the working conditions in a nursing home, ENs are willing to accept these issues given the perceived effectiveness of the intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Working environment
• falls
• nursing homes
• nursing staff
• enrolled nurses
• injury prevention
• environmental health

Author contributions

JG was responsible for the study design, data collection, data analyses, and completing the initial draft. GBR contributed in data collection and analyses, and CJ and FN in the analyses and writing of the article. All authors approved the final article.

Disclaimer

The flooring manufacturer did not contribute to the study with funding and did not have any role in the data collection, analysis, or preparation of the article.

Funding

This project was supported by Karlstad municipality, Lansforsakringar (grant P1/13), and the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (grant 2013-4176).