Preventive Strategies for Elder Abuse within Hospice Care by Healthcare Professionals

Authors

Joshua Eason, Dominican University of CaliforniaFollow

Files

Description

Background: Healthcare professionals providing hospice care need to have particular specialized abilities, empathy, and trust. Unfortunately, some of these medical professionals are unable to provide their patients the care they need, so they will instead abuse and ignore them. Elder abuse must be identified and addressed in hospice care settings if older patients are to have their rights and dignity upheld and a standardized, compassionate end-of-life care program is to be provided for each patient.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness and preventative strategies for elder abuse, implemented by healthcare providers within the hospice care settings by examining and stating preventative measures.

Method: We used a qualitative approach utilizing structured interviews toward healthcare professionals and patients by asking a series of questions regarding hospice care experience, witnessing abuse, and abuse training/education.

Results: We found that a majority of healthcare professionals attended a mandatory abuse training program, yet it wasn’t as useful due to it being vague and not resembling real life scenarios. Patients state they have no personally experienced abuse, but know of their peers that have. During the interviews, family members have stated nurses did not educate them about the warning signs of abuse.

Conclusion: Healthcare institutions may strive toward creating settings of safety, compassion, and respect for senior patients receiving hospice care by putting into place evidence-based treatments and rules. By working together and putting patient welfare first, we can reduce the number of elder abuse cases and make sure that everyone receiving hospice care has a dignified death experience.

Department

Nursing

Publication Date

Spring 4-29-2024

Sponsorship/Conference/Institution

Scholar & Creative Works Conference, Dominican University of California

City

San Rafael, CA

Keywords

neglect, mistreatment, end of life care, palliative care

Disciplines

Geriatric Nursing | Interprofessional Education | Nursing | Other Public Health | Palliative Nursing | Public Health and Community Nursing | Quality Improvement