Elderly Trauma Patient
Running head: INTERVENTION PAPER
Intervention Paper: Treatment Paradigm of Elderly Trauma Patients
N569
Darren J Hunt, RN
College of Nursing
University of New Mexico
Abstract
As the population of our world grows older on average, the question of how to care for them becomes increasingly complex. With the longer life expectancy there exists a kind of Achilles heal regarding elderly trauma patients and the response to treatment for life-threatening injuries. The older trauma patient is often times a victim of slow trauma (occurring over years of injuries and illnesses) before they are made victims of the trauma that gets them admitted to the hospital. Just because we are getting older before we die does not mean we are any healthier. We may last longer but the quality of our health and lives is in question when we sustain an injury or insult that would be serious even in a much younger and healthier patient. So the question is: “What, if anything , can we do to improve overall outcome of trauma in the elderly?”. The situation presented in this paper asks the question as applied to a younger elderly patient with multiple co-morbidities prior to sustaining a multi-system trauma.
JR is a 64 year-old female who was transported by EMS to the Emergency Department after she was a restrained driver in a motor vehicle collision where her vehicle reportedly rear-ended another car. She was originally not a trauma alert protocol. She was admitted to the Emergency Room. However, she was noticed to be hypotensive in the ED, and Trauma Surgery was called for consultation. At the time of examining the patient, the patient was complaining of left knee pain. She denies shortness of breath or chest pain, no abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting. She was complaining of abdominal wall tenderness in her mid abdomen and on her pannus. The patient was alert and complaining of left lower extremity pain and abdominal wall pain. Advanced imaging revealed complex
Intervention Paper: Treatment Paradigm of Elderly Trauma Patients
N569
Darren J Hunt, RN
College of Nursing
University of New Mexico
Abstract
As the population of our world grows older on average, the question of how to care for them becomes increasingly complex. With the longer life expectancy there exists a kind of Achilles heal regarding elderly trauma patients and the response to treatment for life-threatening injuries. The older trauma patient is often times a victim of slow trauma (occurring over years of injuries and illnesses) before they are made victims of the trauma that gets them admitted to the hospital. Just because we are getting older before we die does not mean we are any healthier. We may last longer but the quality of our health and lives is in question when we sustain an injury or insult that would be serious even in a much younger and healthier patient. So the question is: “What, if anything , can we do to improve overall outcome of trauma in the elderly?”. The situation presented in this paper asks the question as applied to a younger elderly patient with multiple co-morbidities prior to sustaining a multi-system trauma.
JR is a 64 year-old female who was transported by EMS to the Emergency Department after she was a restrained driver in a motor vehicle collision where her vehicle reportedly rear-ended another car. She was originally not a trauma alert protocol. She was admitted to the Emergency Room. However, she was noticed to be hypotensive in the ED, and Trauma Surgery was called for consultation. At the time of examining the patient, the patient was complaining of left knee pain. She denies shortness of breath or chest pain, no abdominal pain, nausea or vomiting. She was complaining of abdominal wall tenderness in her mid abdomen and on her pannus. The patient was alert and complaining of left lower extremity pain and abdominal wall pain. Advanced imaging revealed complex