Course Overview
This course is designed to support staff nurses and home-care professionals in developing a structured and practical approach to home safety and environmental risk management during home visits.
Unlike institutional care settings, home environments are highly variable and are not designed for clinical activities. As a result, environmental risks may be overlooked, particularly when caregivers become familiar with a patient’s home or rely on personal experience rather than structured assessment.
Through this course, you will be guided step by step to recognise environmental risks, apply structured risk assessment approaches, and reflect on the effectiveness of risk-control measures in home-based care settings. The focus is on building sound judgement and professional decision-making that supports safe patient transfers, movement, and routine care activities.
Course Structure
This course is organised into three Learning Units (LUs). Each unit builds progressively on the previous one, moving from awareness and judgement to assessment, application, and reflection.
Learning Unit 1 (LU1): Understanding Home Environmental Risks
In this unit, we will focus on building a shared understanding of what constitutes an environmental risk in home-based care settings. You will learn how to recognize common environmental risk factors, distinguish potential risks from actual incidents, and understand why structured approaches to risk identification are essential.
This unit establishes the cognitive and judgement framework that underpins safe home-care practice.
Learning Unit 2 (LU2): Conducting Environmental Risk Assessment
In this unit, you will learn how to assess environmental risks using structured tools and checklists. The focus is on applying systematic observation methods rather than relying solely on personal judgement or experience.
You will be guided through the use of assessment frameworks to evaluate environmental conditions before patient transfers, movement, and care activities.
Learning Unit 3 (LU3): Applying Risk Control and Reflective Practice
In this unit, you will apply risk-control measures based on assessed risks and reflect on their effectiveness in real home-care situations. The emphasis is on practical application, professional judgement, and continuous improvement of safety practices.
You will also be guided to reflect on how environmental risk management supports patient safety, caregiver safety, and organizational safety standards.
Learning Approach
This course uses a combination of:
• Guided instructional content
• Visual examples and scenario-based learning
• Structured reflection activities
• Practical application aligned with real home-care settings
The learning design emphasizes progressive development of knowledge, skills, and professional judgement.
Assessment Overview
Assessment in this course is designed to support learning and verify understanding at appropriate stages. A combination of formative and summative assessment methods is used.
Assessment Methods
Quizzes
Leaners will required to pass the quizzes to assess their understanding of key concepts, terminology, and principles related to home-based fall prevention and safety.
Quizzes are used to reinforce learning and confirm knowledge acquisition before progression.
Scenario-Based Assessment
Learners will be required to apply environmental risk assessment concepts to realistic home-care scenarios.
Reflective Assessment
Guided reflection activities will be used to evaluate learners’ ability to reflect on environmental risks, assessment decisions, and the effectiveness of applied risk-control measures.
Details of assessment tasks and requirements will be provided at the relevant stages of the course.
Course Completion
To successfully complete this course, learners are expected to:
• Engage with all learning units and lessons
• Complete required quizzes and assessment activities
• Demonstrate an understanding of environmental risk identification, assessment, and application in home-based care settings