Danielle Diatte
Loyola University Chicago
Summary This article, “Relationship between call light use and response time and inpatient falls in acute care settings”, focused on three main points of interest. The first was the use of call lights from inpatients and their families. The second was the nurses’ response time to the call light. Finally, the third was the amount of inpatient falls that occurred. The goal of the study was to determine whether the call light use rate and the average call light response time contributed to the fall and injurious fall rates in acute care settings. The study was conducted in a Michigan community hospital and used archived hospital data for analyses for the period from February 2007 to June 2008. The unit of analysis was unit-week. The results of the study were as follows: more calls for assistance were related to less fall-related harm, longer response time to call lights related to fewer total falls and less fall-related patient harm, and more call light use related to longer response times (3333). So, in conclusion, this study challenged the idea that call lights should be used less or responded to faster. Information Understood I understood majority of the information from this article. I understand that while patient call light use can reduce the number of falls for a patient, it does not necessarily mean because there are more calls that the response time will be faster. I understand the importance of hourly rounds as an addition to call lights. Hourly rounds do decrease the use of call light buttons. Perhaps most importantly, I understand that inpatient falls are dangerous and, while caused by a number of things, can be somewhat prevented if the right nursing practice is implicated. Information Not Understood The majority of the information that I had trouble understanding from this article came from the data tables. Although I understood the context and conclusions of