Healthcare Workers’ Compliance and Pediatric Patient Safety: A Social and Organizational Perspective on Fall Prevention

Abstract

Patient falls represent an important patient-safety issue that is influenced not only by clinical conditions but also by social, behavioral, and organizational practices within healthcare institutions. In pediatric inpatient settings, effective fall prevention requires consistent compliance among healthcare workers, continuous supervision, and coordinated implementation of institutional safety procedures. This study aimed to examine the association between compliance with fall prevention measures and the incidence of pediatric patient falls from a social and organizational perspective at Fauziah Mother and Child Hospital during January–June 2025. A retrospective analytic design was employed using secondary data from routine compliance audits and patient fall incident reports. The study analyzed 643 observations generated through routine hospital monitoring activities. Descriptive statistics were used to describe compliance patterns and fall incidents, while Fisher’s Exact Test was applied to examine the association between compliance and patient falls at a significance level of p < 0.05. Compliance with fall prevention measures was consistently high, ranging from 97.0% to 100.0% during the study period. Two pediatric patient fall incidents were recorded, occurring in February (1.1%) and March (1.0%). Both incidents occurred under conditions of non-compliance, whereas no falls were recorded when preventive measures were fully implemented. Fisher’s Exact Test indicated a statistically significant association between compliance and pediatric patient falls (p < 0.001). From a social and organizational perspective, the findings highlight the importance of healthcare workers’ behavioral compliance, institutional safety norms, supervision, and collective responsibility in maintaining pediatric patient safety. However, the findings should be interpreted cautiously because only two fall events were observed, limiting the precision and generalizability of the estimated association. Further research involving larger datasets and multiple healthcare institutions is recommended to examine the social and organizational factors underlying compliance with patient-safety practices.

Keywords: Healthcare Worker Compliance; Fall Prevention; Pediatric Patient Safety; Social Dimensions; Organizational Behavior.