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Approach to death in the older emergency department patient
Author(s) -
Arendts Glenn,
Carpenter Christopher R,
Hullick Carolyn,
Burkett Ellen,
Nagaraj Guruprasad,
Rogers Ian R
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
emergency medicine australasia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1742-6723
pISSN - 1742-6731
DOI - 10.1111/1742-6723.12678
Subject(s) - emergency department , medicine , gerontology , history , library science , nursing , computer science
A total of 70% of older patients present to ED at least once in the last 12 months of their life, with maximal attendance rates in their final weeks and days. End-of-life planning and care are skills that ED physicians employ everyday; however, the quality of this care is highly variable. Furthermore, ED clinicians have been shown to find end-of-life communication and ethical issues around death and dying difficult, and most of us can readily describe our involvement in the distressing deaths of vulnerable older people. How can we improve our quality of end-of-life care