2 Original PICO(T) Question: In adult Med/Surg patients (P), does the timetabled hourly safety rounding (I) reduce patient falls (O) compared to rounding whenever possible not based on a set rounding schedule (C)? Modified PICO(T) Question: In adult Med/Surg patients (P), does the scheduled hourly safety rounding (I) reduce patient falls (O) compared to unscheduled rounding (usual care) (C)?
Selection of the Articles The nursing database at UNCW's Randall Library was used to conduct the literature search. The nursing library database was then used to access ProQuest and search for different articles. The search key words included patient falls, safety rounding, and medical/surgical unit. A more superior search was performed, which included the term adult whilst excluding children, intensive care, and emergency department. Other article search criteria included peer- reviewed, issued in the last five years. Additional articles were discovered by searching Google Scholar for the same terms and sorting out articles published within the last five years. Two meta-analysis, two controlled trials without randomization, and two cross sectional studies were among the final six articles chosen for the literature review. According to the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Evidence Level (n.d), the controlled trials are a level III, the meta-analyses studies are a level I, and the cross-sectional studies are a level IV. The founded articles provide pertinent data and statistics on hospitalized patient falls, the impact of hourly rounding, and how the two are correlated. The chosen literature is reviewed in Table 1.
