Tinetti Assessment Summary
Marcia Luera
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing

A Tinetti Assessment was performed on patient L.L, who is a 64-year-old Hispanic male. Tinetti Assessments help identify patients that are a high risk for falls. The Tinetti Assessment test patients balance and gait. The Tinetti Assessment assigns a zero, one, or two based on patient’s performance on several tasks. The highest possible score for the Tinetti Assessment is 28, with a highest possible score of 16 points on the balance component and highest possible score of 12 on the gait component. The gait component had the patient sitting on a hard armless chair, patient set up straight in chair with no leaning, and patient was than able to stand without use of walking aids or arms to push up. Patient was instructed to stand for five seconds; patient did not sway or loose balance. Pt was than nudged three times with no loss of balance. Patient asked to close eyes, and remained steady. Patient than able to turn in circle no loss of balance noted, and movements were continuous. Lastly, patient was able to return to sitting position a smooth safe motion. Therefore, the patient scored highest possible score on balance component of 16. The gait component was assessed by having the patient stand and walk in a straight line. Patients was noted to have right foot completely pass the left foot, both feet were able to completely clear the floor. Next, it was noted that patient’s steps were equal and continuous. Patient was then asked to walk back to chair in a faster pace than he walked forward, steps were still steady with heals close together and no swaying motion noted in trunk. Therefore, the patient scored the highest possible score on the gait component of 12. Patients scoring less than 19 on the Tinetti Assessment are a high risk of falls; this patient scored highest possible score of 28 and is not found to be a high fall risk at this time.