Elder Abuse and Nursing

by Carol Miller (Author)

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 addresses not only 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, providing interventions 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, and perpetrators. Each section provides nurses with crucial information about how to access essential resources for addressing specific aspects of elder abuse, including 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 caring for older adults who are in actual 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 highlighting 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, providing interventions 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
Case examples illustrate nurses in action addressing many types of elder abuse situations
Includes the words of older adults describing their experiences and perceptions of elder abuse
Includes the words and thoughts of nurses describing their reflections on and perceptions of elder abuse situations
Each chapter concludes with Key Points: What Nurses Need to Know and Can Do

Carol A. Miller, MSN, RN-BC, has cared for older adults in homes, hospitals, hospice settings, a geropsychiatric program, long-term care facilities, and many community-based programs for more than four decades. Her roles have included nurse practitioner, geriatric care manager, clinical nurse specialist, consultant, administrator, interprofessional team member, and staff nurse. In all these roles and settings, she has provided nursing care for hundreds of older adults who are in abusive or potentially abusive situations. Ms. Miller's interest in elder abuse began in 1978 when she served on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Aging and was involved with organizing hearings and developing legislation to address elder abuse at the federal level. Since then, in addition to her clinical practice, she has participated in research and presented at numerous local, state, and national conferences on various aspects of elder abuse and gerontological nursing.

Ms. Miller has held various faculty positions at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University and a host of other nursing programs. She is widely published in nursing journals and is the sole author of several nursing texts, includingFast Facts for Dementia Care(Springer Publishing Company) andNursing for Wellness in Older Adults, 7th Edition,which won a Book of the Year award from theAmerican Journal of Nursingin 2015.