Falls Prevention Awareness in Care Settings

This falls prevention training explains why people fall, how to reduce the risk of falls and injury, and how to respond safely when a fall happens. It is written for care workers, healthcare support workers, nurses, nursing associates, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, paramedics and other staff in hospitals, care homes, domiciliary care, supported living and community services across the UK.

Falls are among the most common and serious problems faced by older people and people with long-term conditions. Around one in three people over 65 living at home is estimated to fall at least once a year, and the proportion is higher in care homes and hospitals. The harm goes beyond fractures and head injuries: after a fall many people lose confidence, stop moving and become weaker, which makes the next fall more likely. The course is clear that not every fall can be prevented, and that trying to prevent all falls by restricting movement causes harm of its own. The aim is to reduce risk, reduce injury and respond well, while keeping people active.

It is designed to take about 2 hours, including reading, reflection points, a reflective account and a 15-question assessment, and is self-paced. You buy and take it on our course portal; see the course catalogue for related titles. Healthcare Practise UK is an independent provider. We are not affiliated with any UK regulator, inspectorate or the NHS, and none of them has reviewed this course.

The course is built around NICE guideline NG249, Falls: assessment and prevention in older people and in people 50 and over at higher risk, published in April 2025 to replace earlier NICE falls guidance. Its central message runs through every module: falls risk prediction tools that give a high or low score should not be used to predict whether someone will fall. What protects people is identifying their individual risk factors and acting on each one through a multifactorial assessment and plan.

It also describes Scotland's national approach to falls and fracture prevention and the expectations of the Care Inspectorate, Care Inspectorate Wales and RQIA. Always follow your own setting's post-fall protocol, which takes precedence.

1. Understanding falls

Why falls matter, the long lie, intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors, a fall as the first sign of illness, the national guidance across the UK, and fear of falling, including when cognitive behavioural approaches may be considered.

2. Recognising individual risk

What a multifactorial assessment looks at and what care staff can observe and report for each factor; medicines that raise risk, from sedatives to diuretics and insulin, and why anticoagulants matter after a head injury; lying and standing blood pressure and how to reduce the effects of postural hypotension; and delirium, continence, vision and footwear. A ward case shows a support worker recognising possible delirium in a man trying to climb out of bed.

3. Reducing risk day to day

An environmental checklist for every shift, strength and balance and staying active, safe use of walking aids, bed rails, low beds, sensor mats, pendant alarms and hip protectors, night-time and toileting support, intentional rounding, and balancing safety with independence when a family asks for a reclining chair or bed rails.

4. Responding to a fall

The first few minutes, warning signs of head, hip and spinal injury, treating an unwitnessed fall as a possible head injury, why a person should never be manually lifted from the floor, guided self-rise and lifting equipment, falls at home and community falls response services, and observations in the hours and days afterwards.

5. After a fall: recording, review and learning

What to record ("found sitting on floor beside bed at 03:10, wearing socks, walking frame at end of bed out of reach"), incident reporting and notifications, the post-fall review or huddle, talking openly with the person and family, and using falls data in a just and learning culture.

6. Bone health, fractures and recovery

Osteoporosis and fragility fractures, care after a hip fracture and why early mobilisation matters, and rebuilding confidence through goals that matter to the person.

Each module includes case illustrations, reflection points and an "apply it" task, such as checking whether every risk factor for one person who has fallen has a matching action in their plan. The quick-reference guide gives a STOP and THINK sequence for after a fall: stay calm, check danger and response, check for injury, decide how to get up, never lift manually, observe, record and report, and review.

The assessment has 15 scenario-based questions, including how NG249 treats falls risk tools, a resident found on the floor who takes an anticoagulant, a fall two days after a new sleeping tablet and a cluster of falls around shift handover. The pass mark is 12 out of 15 (80%), with the chance to revisit sections and try again. Passing supports your learning record; it does not by itself show competence, which your employer assesses in practice.

Your reflective account asks you to look back at a fall you know about, name the contributing factors, and set out how you will respond safely if someone falls on your shift. On completion you receive a certificate of completion from Healthcare Practise UK.

Nurses, midwives and nursing associates can record it towards the NMC's 35 hours of CPD over three years; as self-directed learning it usually counts as individual rather than participatory CPD. Physiotherapists, occupational therapists, paramedics and other HCPC registrants can include it in their CPD record with reflection.

Care workers can use it to support Care Certificate learning in England, and social care workers registered with the SSSC, Social Care Wales or NISCC can use it as post-registration learning, subject to their regulator's rules. It does not replace practical moving and handling training or training on your local post-fall protocol.

Teams often pair it with a review of their own falls data and a walk-round using the environmental checklist. It supports awareness; check your employer's requirements before relying on it as mandatory training. See for organisations for team credits.

• Person-Centred Care, Dignity and Privacy for Care Workers, for positive risk-taking and recognising restrictive practice;
• Nutrition and Hydration Awareness in Care Settings, as dehydration and weight loss both feed into falls risk;
• Dementia Awareness for Health and Care Staff, for delirium, walking with purpose and pain in people who cannot describe it;
• Medicines Safety and Medication Error Prevention, for the medicines side of falls risk.

The care sector training page groups these titles, and which course do I need suggests a starting point.