Elder Abuse for Nurses

"The only text about elder abuse specifically for nurses in clinical settings."

Nurses are required by law to report elder abuse even when it is suspected but not verified. This is the only research-based and clinically oriented text that applies what is known about different forms of elder abuse in domestic and long-term care settings to the everyday experiences of practicing nurses. Content not only addresses legal and ethical concerns, but also serves as an essential guide to caring for older adults, delineating the role of nurses in detecting, suspecting, reporting, assessing, intervening for, and preventing elder abuse in all clinical settings. Detailed and unfolding case studies throughout the text illustrate nurses in action as they address elder abuse in commonly encountered nurse-client or nurse-patient situations.

Chapters show nurses in various health care settings how to address elder abuse issues relating to older adults, caregivers, perpetrators, and situational influences. Each section provides nurses with crucial information about how to access essential resources for addressing specific aspects of elder abuse like self-neglect, domestic abuse, abuse in long-term care settings, financial abuse, and sexual abuse. In-depth guides help nurses apply their usual nursing assessment and intervention skills to unusual situations when they care for older adults who are in actually or potentially abusive situations. In an easy-to-use and clinically applicable format, concise tools and guides throughout the book highlight core facets of elder abuse and the role of nurses. Each chapter concludes with Key Points: What Nurses Need to Know and Can Do to highlight the content that is most applicable to nursing care of older adults.

Key Features: Presents essential facts about different forms of elder abuse and applies the information to nursing care of older adults in various clinical settings Describes key criteria for nurses to use for recognizing, assessing, intervening for, and reporting elder abuse Addresses legal, ethical, cultural, and interprofessional care considerations Provides numerous guides to nursing assessment and interventions that address elder abuse Describes many types of case examples illustrating nurses in action addressing situations of elder abuse Includes words of older adults describing their experiences and perceptions of elder abuse Includes words and thoughts of nurses describing their reflections on and perceptions of elder abuse situations Concludes each chapter with Key Points: What Nurses Need to Know and Can Do