When You Hear Hoof Beats, Look for the Zebras: Atypical Presentation of Illness in the Older Adult Article

Full Text via DOI: 10.1016/j.nurpra.2021.01.014 Web of Science: 000642630400020
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Cited authors

  • Bensink M, Shah S, Shah N, Desai P, Khan F, Rubin A, Ailani J, Dougherty C, McLeod K, Quillen A

Abstract

  • Nurse practitioners in acute, primary, and long-term care manage the complex needs of the geriatric population. Symptom presentation is fundamental to building the differential diagnosis. However, older adults often present atypically, for example, with only functional changes, rather than with typical symptoms. In order to identify potentially life-threatening illness in this group, it is necessary to have an understanding of symptom & exam alterations and the physiological age changes that underly them. By applying knowledge of these unique variations, nurse practitioners can help decrease mortality and morbidity in our older adult population.(c) 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Authors

Publication date

  • 2021

Category

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1555-4155

Number of pages

  • 9

Start page

  • 462

End page

  • 470

Volume

  • 17

Issue

  • 4