Nursing assessment of suspected violence against aged persons: from literature to practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/dn/22562Keywords:
older people, abuse, nursing, assessment, assessment toolAbstract
BACKGROUND:
Elder abuse represents a critical issues; no paper so far has discussed the existing scales and assessment methods in the light of background factors (i.e., family characteristics and social context) and clinical presentation of the potentially abused older people. Aim: To provide an overview of the risk and protective factors, signs and symptoms, and assessment criteria that nurses can follow to assess situations potentially related to elder abuse.
METHODS:
Narrative review on Pubmed, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library.
RESULTS:
The retrieved literature offered insights on 19 assessment tools available and allowed focus on those dedicated to nursing. This is paramount because of the multifaceted nature of elder abuse, in which nursing, medical, legal, social, and ethical aspects are involved.
DISCUSSION:
Many retrieved instruments were conceived for doctors or healthcare professionals other than nurses, and some were time-intensive (i.e., 2-hour interviews) or required usage in conjunction with other tools. The EASI and HS-EAST tools are the only validated instruments nurses can use. However, the EASI is only partially validated, as no internal consistency analysis was reported by the authors, which could limit the reproducibility of the assessment. The HS-EAST has only been tested on women.
CONCLUSION:
Assessing the older person with signs and symptoms of potential violence remains an important topic in nursing settings. Validation studies are urged to obtain reliable tools aimed at successfully identifying the potential victims of violence.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Rosa Rita Bucolo, Stefano Terzoni, Mauro Parozzi, Paolo Ferrara, Maura Lusignani, Roberta Lodini, Laura Di Prisco, Lara Carelli, Cristina Cattaneo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Accepted 2024-07-29
Published 2024-07-31
