Elder Abuse and Neglect

You are a charge nurse in the emergency department. An elderly woman arrives with bruises all over the upper torso of her body and down her left arm. She was brought in by her grandson who resides with her, and the grandson shares that he brought her in to be checked out because he thinks she may have fractured her wrist when she fell on the last step going down in the cellar to do laundry. He appears extremely stressed and states that his grandmother suffers from Alzheimer disease. When you put the patient’s name and demographic information into the electronic medical record it indicates that this patient was in 2 weeks prior with a concussion.

Instructions:

1. Read the scenario above and answer the following question:
   1. How would you assess the situation?
   2. What nursing interventions would you utilize to help both the elderly woman and the grandson?
2. Your paper should be:
   • One (1) page or more.
   • Use factual information from the textbook and/or appropriate articles and websites.
   • Cite your sources – type references according to the APA Style Guide.

Answer preview

One intervention of the woman is hospitalization until she recovers. Hoovers & Poolson (2014) says that if the injuries are serious, then the patient can be hospitalized pending reporting to social services. Another intervention is contacting other family members. If the woman has other relatives, then they can be contacted to house the woman or move to live with her. The woman and her grandson have to be counseled to determine the reason for the bruises so that a solution can be formulated to sort the case.

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