Current Innovation by Belen Penaloza

Smart Socks Rock

belenpenaloza98 — 2024-01-26 21:38:58 UTC

The Baby Boomer generation once dominated the work force and took care of business, but with that generation aging, they now find themselves with multiple health problems and even in the hospital at times. Along with their aging body and comorbidities, they take medications that alter gait and alertness, suffer from visual impairments, and possibly cognitive deficits. This year, The Joint Commision, or TJC, listed "to reduce falls" as one of their National Patient Safety Goals across multiple nursing programs (The Joint Commission, 2024). There are things in place to help reduce falls, such as call lights, bed alarms, and designated "sitters". Unfortunately, those aren't fool proof and falls during hospitalization occur on a daily basis and especially in older adults. Call lights are often forgotten about and the false alarms with bed alarms can cause alarm fatigue and even decrease effectiveness (Hastings, 2022). Some patients are unable to use the standard hospital bed with built in alarms, such as psychiatric patients, who are also at an increased risk due to altered mental status and/or high-risk medications. In an effort to reduce falls, a company called Palarum, has designed PUP Smart Socks to assist healthcare workers with early intervention. These "smart socks" detect high-risk patients attempting to ambulate, through pressure sensors and notify the 3 closest personnel. All patients are assessed for falls when admitted to the hospital, and patients who are deemed a high-risk for falls, will be easily fitted and assigned these socks during the duration of their stay, and then the socks can be recycled once the patient no longer requires them (Hastings, 2022). 2 things I like about this idea is the fact that it is accessible to most psychiatric patients, and they don't require any extra work from patients or healthcare workers, just as long as they keep their socks on. Dementia patients no longer need to push the call light or get upset with bed rails, and workers don't need to triple check to make sure the bed alarm is on. However, it is technology, and it does have cons associated with it, such as how much the fabric and sensors can handle for overweight patients with large legs and amputees who don't have the same pressure distribution. I personally love the idea and think it helps all patients- geriatric, psychiatric, rehab/post-surgery, etc. It's also able to be recycled which is great when healthcare costs are consistently on the rise.

Author

belenpenaloza98 — 2024-01-26 21:50:08 UTC

Published August 25, 2022, to medgadget.com, written by Conn Hastings, PhD.

References

belenpenaloza98 — 2024-01-26 21:52:10 UTC

Hastings, C. (2022, August 25). Smart Socks Help Prevent Falls Among At-Risk Patients |. Medgadget. https://www.medgadget.com/2022/08/smart-socks-help-prevent-falls-among-at-risk-patients.html

The Joint Commission. (2023). National Safety Patient Goals. In jointcommission.org. https://www.jointcommission.org/-/media/tjc/documents/standards/national-patient-safety-goals/2024/all-programs-tjc-npsg-simple-2024_.pdf

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

belenpenaloza98 — 2024-01-26 21:53:49 UTC

My 5 Strengths are Futuristic, Context, Restorative, Developer, and Harmony. These strengths coincide with being a great group leader by being able to encourage participation, actively listen to everyone's thoughts, and effectively see issues and have the motivation to fix them. The 5 additional people in my group will be Angelica (Analytical), David (Deliberative) Matthew (Maximizer), Pablo (Positivity), Sheila (Strategic) and William (Woo). Matthew will assist me in identifying everyone's strengths and placing them their prospective roles. William is outgoing and Pablo will be the peace and comedic relief for the group. William and Pablo will work together to keep the good vibes and the face of the project with their outgoing and "can do" attitude. Angelica can problem solve and will be good with studies, David can fine tune his thoughts and determine obstacles, and Sheila is great with spotting patterns/issues and is quick thinking. Angelica, Sheila, David, I will do research, problem solve, and analyze outcomes.

belenpenaloza98 — 2024-01-26 21:56:15 UTC