The Little Schimdy Pediatric Hospital Fall Risk Assessment Index

Introduction

Falling is the leading cause of injury among the elderly as well as children. Overall, around three million children suffer from fall-related injuries. There are few studies that primarily focus on pediatric fall assessment and preventive strategies. The majority of literature research is done on fall prevention in adults and the elderly population. For the past many years, a lot of pediatric fall risk assessment methods have been developed.

Little Schimidy Pediatric Hospital Fall Risk Assessment

Little Schimdy pediatric hospital fall risk assessment is used to evaluate inpatient pediatric fall risk. This tool describes the characteristics of pediatric falls.

Intended Population

Inpatient children under the age of 2 years.

Documentation and Assessment

Documentation of the score is done in thepPatient care record or relevant MR. The score risk is assessed in the following manner:

1. Daily,
2. When the patient condition changes,
3. When transferred to a new department/unit
4. Following a fall incident

Interventions and actions should be documented on Falls Plan or in Progress Notes

Scale

Below is the scale

Interpretation

The little Schimdy scale compromises of five items assess different domains of fall risk. Three out of five items are scored 0 or 1. Which include mobility, elimination, and current medication. The remaining two, mentation and history of fall are scored 0, 1 or 2. Scores of each item are summed, resulting in a total score ranging from 0 to 7.

Fall scores equal to or greater than 3 are considered high fall risks. For any patient being on high-fall-risk care, a fall risk fall risk care plan is implemented. This plan is implemented by the nurses for patients whose score is less than 3.

Little Schimidy score is evaluated three times points. Firstly, the sore obtained upon hospital admission, score prior to to the fall and the last proximal score obtained prior to the fall.

Evidence

Little Schmidy scores were significantly associated with pediatric falls (p<0.005)