Introduction: Patient falls has been identified as one
of the major issues in today’s health care despite efforts
taken in preventing such incidents from happening
(Cox et al., 2014). Patient falls can be prevented by
using fall risk assessment tools such as Morse Fall Scale.
Morse Fall Scale was implemented in the year 2014 in a
private hospital in Malaysia but the patient fall rate did
not decrease.
Objective: The research objective is to determine the
nurses’ level of knowledge and competency in the use
of the Morse Fall Scale as an assessment tool in the
prevention of patient falls.
Method: A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional
research design was conducted with 100 registered nurses
from a private hospital in Selangor, Malaysia. Universal
sampling technique was used to recruit the nurses.
Results: The registered nurses had a moderate level
of knowledge (M = 7.72; SD = 1.72) and competency
(scoring Morse Fall Scale, M = 4.75; SD = 1.26;
planning intervention, M = 13.19; SD = 1.89) in using
the Morse Fall Scale.
Conclusion: It is recommended that a review of the
training programme on the use of the Morse Fall Scale
be implemented in a more structured manner.