It is important to discuss some of the repercussions that may develop for a resident after they sustain a fall in a nursing home.

From the outset, it is widely known that most falls that occur in nursing homes are generally preventable. There are several things that the nursing home should be doing to prevent residents from falling.

Nursing homes must develop a care plan that puts certain steps and interventions into place for each resident. There are multiple ways to monitor the resident, and ways to anticipate residents' needs to help prevent them from falling. However, in the event that a nursing home resident falls and injures themselves, far too often there are further injuries and difficulties that develop as a result of the fall other than the traumatic injury, such as the fracture or whatever may have come from the fall itself.

Very often additional injuries may develop as a result of a loss of mobility. After a resident has sustained a fall, they are often not able to move as well as they were able to before. This lack of mobility takes a toll on their entire medical condition. As a result of not being able to move, sometimes nursing home residents can develop pressure sores, or bed sores, on various parts of their body, because understandably, they are then staying in bed in the same position for much longer periods of time.

That said, there are various prevention measures that the nursing home should be doing to prevent that from happening. They have to account for the fact that this person has suffered a fall, and now needs to be cared for differently. Sadly, what happens often is a resident has a fall, obviously their medical condition changed as a result of having a fall, but the nursing home fails to do anything differently. One of the most important things a nursing home staff can do is check a resident’s skin from head to toe on a regular basis after they’ve suffered a fall. This is essential, because, as stated, by being in one position for a long time, their skin can become compromised. Skin deterioration can negatively affect an individual's entire medical condition, and can often lead to a significant decline in a resident’s health.