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Chapter 4 - You: An Approach to Your Older Emergency Department Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

John Schumacher  and
Don Melady
John Schumacher
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Don Melady
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Presents practical tips to help clinicians go from good to great in their approach to older patients. Reviews key skills, knowledge, and attitudes about older people that they probably didn’t learn in their training to add to their approach for better outcomes. Treat the person not the person’s age. Sit down. Talk slowly not loudly. Think broadly not algorithmically. Drugs, drugs, drugs. Go for a walk. Be a team player. Learn about frailty.

Keywords

Clinical approachskillsknowledgeattitudefrailtycomplexity
Type
Chapter
Information
Creating a Geriatric Emergency Department
A Practical Guide
 , pp. 40 - 47
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

Snider, T, Melady, D, Costa, AP. A national survey of Canadian emergency medicine residents’ comfort with geriatric emergency medicine. CJEM. 2016;1–9.Google Scholar
Melady, D, Perry, A. Ten best practices for the older patient in the emergency department. Clin Geriatr Med. 2018 Aug 1;34(3):313–26.Google Scholar
Perry, A, Macias Tejada, J, Melady, D. An approach to the older patient in the emergency department. Clin Geriatr Med. 2018/06/11ed. 2018;34(3):299–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogan, TM, Malsch, A. Communication strategies for better care of older individuals in the emergency department. Clin Geriatr Med. 2018;34(3):387–97.Google Scholar
Jolivot, P-A, Hindlet, P, Pichereau, C, et al. A systematic review of adult admissions to ICUs related to adverse drug events. Crit Care. 2014 Nov 25;18(6):643–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chow, RB, Lee, A, Kane, BG, et al. Effectiveness of the “Timed Up and Go” (TUG) and the Chair test as screening tools for geriatric fall risk assessment in the ED. Am J Emerg Med. 2019 Mar;37(3):457–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arendts, G, Burkett, E, Hullick, C, Carpenter, CR, Nagaraj, G, Visvanathan, R. Frailty, thy name is…. Emerg Med Australas. 2017/10/03ed. 2017 Dec;29(6):712–16.Google Scholar

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