Addressing a significant deficiency in pre-hospital educational literature for health care workers, this unique text focuses solely on the pre-hospital care of the elder patient with illness or injury. Based on real-world cases, it provides material relevant to the work of the basic paramedic, and contains special sections on elder abuse, medical ethics, and living wills.

Robert A. Partridge, MD, MPH, DTM, FACEP: Rhode Island Hospital Bruce M. Becker, MD, MPH, FACEP: Rhode Island Hospital

1. Introduction to Pre-hospital Care of the Elder Patient.
2. Pre-hospital Assessment of Ill or Injured Elder Patients.
3. Cardiovascular Disorders.
4. Pulmonary Disorders.
5. Gastrointestinal Disorders.
6. Genitourinary Disorders.
7. Neurologic Disorders.
8. Endocrine Disorders.
9. Toxicology.
10. Environmental Disorders.
11. Psychiatric and Behavioral Disorders.
12. Introduction to Trauma in the Elder Patient.
13. Head and Spine Trauma.
14. Chest Trauma.
15. Abdominal Trauma.
16. Musculoskeletal Trauma.
17. Pharmacology in the Elder Patient.
18. Medical-Legal Considerations and Elder Abuse.
19. Advance Directives in Medical Care.

What is included with this book?

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The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

This book was written to address a glaring deficit in the prehospital literature. In reviewing the many books available for teaching emergency medical technicians and paramedics for our own courses, we found none that focused on prehospital care of the elder patient. Elder patients represent a considerable proportion of all patients treated and transported by prehospital emergency medicine personnel. Yet not only are no texts devoted to this important subject, but a review of current standard prehospital textbooks also reveals almost no information at all that specifically addresses older patients. We undertook this project to educate prehospital emergency medicine personnel about the assessment, stabilization, and management of this important and expanding patient group. It focuses specifically on issues affecting older patients and on how prehospital management of these patients differs from that of other cohorts. This book is intended for all emergency medical technicians at the basic level, with additional advanced material in each chapter geared toward the paramedic level. Each chapter also includes a question set for self-assessment and review. Prehospital providers at all levels can benefit from the information in this text and easily apply this knowledge to their specific situations. Section One of this book is intended to provide a general introduction to the management of the prehospital patient. It focuses on the differences between elder patients and other adult patients whom the emergency medical technicians or paramedics encounter in the course of their practice. Key topics include the changing anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology of the elder patient, and how these changes affect the work of the prehospital provider. Section One also focuses on the assessment of the elder patient. It is divided into two subsections: 1) assessment of the elder patient with medical illness, and 2) assessment of the elder patient who has suffered trauma. As in other patients, assessment is grounded in the ABCs (airway, breathing, circulation), but it must be adapted to the particular presentation of the elder patient, who very often provides a confusing picture to prehospital emergency personnel, as well as to the medical staff at the emergency department. Problems that are easily diagnosable in other patients, such as shock, myocardial infarction, and acute abdominal emergency, are often masked and present in an occult fashion in the elder patient. It is essential for the prehospital provider to be cognizant of these differences in presentation and take them into account in deciding on initial stabilization and approach to these patients. The elder trauma patient also can be very difficult to assess. Baseline changes in cognition, multiple cardiac and other medications, and long-standing chronic disease may interfere with the normally adequate trauma evaluation. The management of medical emergencies is the focus of Section Two, which reviews medical considerations specific to elder patients, including cardiovascular, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, neurological, endocrine, toxicological, environmental, and behavioral pathology and pathophysiology. This hands-on review is very symptoms and systems based, stressing basic strategies for assessment, stabilization, and transport. The paramedic section goes into greater depth in each of the medical subsections in order to broaden and deepen the paramedics' understanding of these problems in the elder patient. Section Three examines trauma in the elder patient, with a focus on assessment of the cardiovascular system, shock, bony, and neurological injuries. Perception of pain, ability to communicate, and lowered baseline level of functioning can interfere with appropriate assessment and intervention in elder trauma patients. It is quite common to underestimate the degree of injury. For an elder patient, even a minor fall can result in a fra