But my bathroom has always been steps away from the foot of my bed!"

A week ago I moved to a new (for me) home in a new city in a new State along with fellow community member, Sister Bernie Galvin. Three days after arriving, I commented to Sister Bernie on how puzzled I was that in going from the kitchen to the basement, I automatically headed for the door which is a closet, instead of the door on the other side of the room which leads to the basement. I visualized the previous house I had lived in and realized the path I instinctively took WOULD have led me to the basement in the "old"house. When I shared that revelation with Bernie, she told me that she had a similar experience. In leaving her bedroom to go to the bathroom in this new location, she instinctively attempted a left turn into the hallway which was the “route” in the previous house.

Patterns and routines run deep. We both have adjusted pretty well to learning new patterns, but this reality of following learned routines rather spontaneously caused me to think of consequences for elders when they are hospitalized, or when they first move to a nursing home.

That same pattern of following a familiar “path” to the bathroom, the first few nights that an elder is in the hospital or is new to a nursing home often results in falls. These falls can have serious and sometimes fatal consequences.

Hospitals are taking more notice of falls because Medicare no longer reimburses the cost of care due to an in-hospital fall-related injury. The “solution” to preventing falls, whether in hospitals or nursing homes is NOT the use of physical restraints or those ever-increasingly-used but proven-to-be ineffective chair alarms. Evidence of this is not only common sense, but ongoing research.

Lack of mobility adversely affects every ---- every --- system in the body. When one doesn’t move, one loses muscle strength and balance – just for starters.

An article in “Medical News Today” describes an in-hospital study which concludes that falls are not related to activity (number of steps taken). An analysis of in-hospital falls during this study found that all of the falls took place at night, and that 60% of these falls were related to visits to the bathroom.

Patterns and routines run deep.

To read this short article, click on the link below.


http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/236797.php