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Unintentional lulls among the elderly in the United States remains one of the most challenging safety problems for healthcare providers across the care continuum. It is the most common cause of injury and accidental death, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.' National Patient Safety Goal #9 for long-term care states, "reduce the risk of resident harm resulting from falls," using interview strategics and identifying risks and the need for further evaluation could be accomplished by using SPICES.- SPICES is an acronym for:
Sleep disorders
Problems with eating and feeding
Incontinence
Confusion
Evidence of falls
Skin breakdown
Offers framework
Nurses working with older adults in long-term care could use SPICES as a framework for their assessments, shift reports, and handoffs. SPICES was developed by Dr. Terry Fulmer in 1988 and was used in the Nurses Improving Care for Health System Elders program,1 which helps hospitals assess and implement effective systemic changes to improve care to the older adults.
Geriatric patients are more likely to experience problems with sleeping, eating, feeding, elimination, incontinence, confusion, falls, and skin breakdown. The presence of these conditions alone or in combination, can lead to increased death rates, higher costs, and longer hospitalizations. SPICES is an evidenced-based tool which provides a framework to identify six common geriatric syndromes.
The Fulmer SPiCES identified six common conditions that may signal for in-depth assessment. During the...