The effects of nurse driven mobility intervention (NDMI) on activities of daily living, mobility, fear of falling, and balance performance in hospitalized older patients: A pilot study.

Only 13 of 24 patients had post-intervention data because many were discharged before the interventionist could assess them or were not admitted long enough for at least three mobilization sessions. There was no comparison group, so changes cannot be separated from usual hospital care, normal recovery, or other therapies such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy. Patients were selected by convenience and had to be able to ambulate before admission, communicate in English, and have no marked cognitive impairment, so results may not apply to more frail, cognitively impaired, or non-English-speaking patients. The paper reports a decrease in the balance score but later describes it as improvement, so the meaning of the balance result is unclear. Many patients started with relatively high independence or mobility scores, leaving little room for improvement in activities of daily living or mobility scores. Short admission times limited the number of intervention sessions. Some patients could not stand still with eyes closed for the balance test, and the post-assessment method was changed to eyes open for consistency. Readmission and length of stay were not measured.

NIH extramural research support is listed in the publication types. No author conflict of interest statement is provided in the supplied text.

Do not read the balance change as proof that nurse-led mobilization improves balance. The study had no control group, only 13 patients had post-assessment data, and the paper reports a decrease in the balance score while later describing it as improvement.