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Elders often have duplicate prescriptions and might take herbal supplements without telling ED nurses, warns Carol Howat, RN, BSN, CEN, clinical educator for the ED at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, IL.
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Do you expect to see tachycardia in a septic patient? Don't forget that this response will be masked in elders taking beta blockers.
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Do you suspect your elder patient is having a seizure? "Remember that presenting clinical features differ between the old and young," says Alison Hofheinz, RN, MSN, CPNP, a clinical nurse specialist in Bronson Methodist Hospital's Trauma & Emergency Center in Kalamazoo, MI. Hofheinz says to keep in mind these three things, Hofheinz says:
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A heart rate in the 60s might be the expected result of a patient on a beta blocker. "But, it may really be a masked tachycardia limited by the medication," says Barb Smith, RN, BSN, MSA, CEN, trauma program manager at Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills, MI.
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If a 65-year-old patient came to you with acute visual hallucinations but no behavioral health care history, what would you suspect?
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An Illinois hospital has shown that it can save considerable money and improve safety and quality outcomes by having pharmacists cover its emergency department (ED).
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The Joint Commission has approved revisions to Medical Staff (MS) 01.01.01, formerly known as MS.1.20. This standard, it says, "is designed to contribute to patient safety and quality of care through the support of a well-functioning, positive relationship between a hospital's medical staff and governing body."
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Five or 10 years ago, few pharmacists would have been able to gain experience as an emergency department pharmacist, even if they had thought about that field as a specialty. But times are changing.