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Abstract
A significant proportion of ambulance transports to the Emergency Department involve
elderly patients, and this use of EMS services by the elderly is expected to increase.
Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) may have preconceived notions about the behavior
they observe in this group of patients, who tend to be difficult to assess. To provide
EMTs with the perspective from which their elderly patients view the situations in
which they find themselves, we developed and implemented training scenarios in which
the EMTs were required to play the role of the geriatric patient. The EMTs' evaluations
of the sessions were enthusiastically positive and indicated that the course did enable
them to reevaluate their attitudes toward elderly patients. It is our conviction that
this type of sensitivity training is an easily implemented and highly valuable method
of augmenting the facts and algorithms taught to these prehospital care providers.
Keywords
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References
- The universal almanac. Andrews and McMeel Co, Kansas City1994
- Use of emergency departments by elderly patients: projections from a multicenter data base.Ann Emerg Med. 1992; 21: 819-824
- Geriatrics/Gerontology.Emergency Medicine Technician-Paramedic: National Standard Curriculum, Washington, DC1985 (Division 4, Section 10)
- Facts on aging: a short quiz.Gerontologist. 1977; 17: 315-320
- Facts on aging quiz: a review of findings.Gerontologist. 1980; 20: 669-672
- “Hot spots” checklist. Adapted from Law enforcement and older person: instructor's guide. 1980;
- Care of the elderly in the emergency department: Conclusions and recommendations.Ann Emerg Med. 1992; 21: 830-834
- Perceptions of emergency care by the elderly: results of multicenter focus group interviews.Ann Emerg Med. 1992; 21: 814-818
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 30,
1996
Received in revised form:
January 12,
1996
Received:
August 14,
1995
Footnotes
☆Presented at The Annual Meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, San Antonio, Texas, May 1995, and supported by the Akron General Medical Center Development Foundation.
☆☆Prehospital Care is coordinated by Peter Pons, md, of Denver General Hospital, Denver, Colorado.
Identification
Copyright
© 1996 Published by Elsevier Inc.
