How should a nurse respond to a patient who is at risk for falls in the hallway?

• A. Remove rails
• B. Leave call light within reach
• C. Move to chair and ignore
• D. Implement fall precautions, keep call light within reach, and ensure the patient is supervised or assisted

Answer: (D)

Preventing falls relies on proactive safety measures and ensuring the patient can call for help and be assisted promptly. The best approach is to implement fall precautions, keep the call light within reach, and ensure the patient is supervised or assisted. This directly lowers fall risk because the patient has a clear way to request help, and staff or caregivers can provide timely support during movement or transfers, especially in a hallway where balance can be unstable. In practice, this includes arranging for supervision during ambulation, keeping the environment safe, and making help readily available. Removing rails would raise injury risk, leaving the call light within reach without supervision doesn’t guarantee assistance, and moving the patient to a chair while ignoring the risk leaves them unprotected. This combined strategy aligns with standard fall-prevention practice.