Fall prevention must be balanced with the need to mobilize patients. It may be tempting to leave patients in bed to prevent falls, but patients need to transfer and ambulate in order to maintain their strength and to avoid complications of bed rest.

Use of safe patient handling equipment should be included as part of universal fall precaution protocols that are applicable for every patient.

If staff members are not trained or equipment is not readily available, a patient could fall or staff members could be injured because appropriate assistive equipment was not used .