Table 1.

Four interventions and referring disciplines of targeted falls prevention programme

Intervention	Description	Referring discipline
Falls risk alert card	Falls risk alert symbol on A4 size card placed above participant bed head. Information brochure targeted at family members/carers to discuss with participant nature of hospital falls and ways of preventing them	Nursing staff
Exercise programme*	Three 45 minute sessions per week conducted by research physiotherapists in location away from view of hospital physiotherapists. Exercises incorporated therapeutic principles of t'ai chi22 combined with functional activities such as transferring from chair to chair, stepping, reaching, and weight shifting. Exercises tailored to meet individual abilities of participants	Physiotherapy staff
Education programme†	Twice weekly individual sessions of up to 30 minutes conducted by research occupational therapist at participants' beside away from view of hospital occupational therapists. Education manual that covered nature of hospital falls and how participants can prevent them guided but did not limit content of these sessions. Programme curriculum was covered over four sessions, though participants were allowed to receive repetitions of education sessions as deemed appropriate	Occupational therapy staff
Hip protectors	Safehip‡ (force deflection—firm shield) hip protectors aimed at reducing incidence of fractures of neck of femur. Hospital staff could decide part way into a participant's stay that hip protector was no longer required	Medical, nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy staff

^*Further description of these exercises can be found at www.nari.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/Exercise%20manual%20for%20RCT.pdf.

^†Though group education sessions were initially planned to be incorporated into this programme, there were rarely enough participants at the same stage in the education process to make this viable.

^‡Produced by Abena-Sanicare, Sydney, Australia.