The First Post

Hello everyone! My name is Lauren Shestak and I am an Honors in Nursing student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. This blog will be dedicated to my personal experience working on a quality improvement research project in the emergency department at UAB hospital; I will be working with Dr. Kellie Flood and Dr. Alexander Lo.

The patient population we will be focusing on, the elderly population, grew up in the aftermath of World War II, they witnessed the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, saw the first man walk on the moon, saw technology advance in leaps and bounds, and the list could go on. These patients are our grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers, fathers, aunts and uncles; they are our loved ones. These patients helped shape the history of the United States and paved the way for our generation and even for generations to come. They helped shape our history, and now it is time for us to help shape medical care for them. 

The purpose of our initial research is to see how older adults, particularly those experiencing changes in mental status, are being medically treated when they are admitted to the emergency room (medicines given, level of confusion/disorientation, etc.). It is our hope that at the end of our research, we can implement a standardized tool that will assist the emergency department team in identifying mental status change in older adults that will thus improve their outcome post discharge.

This is important because over 10,000 elderly patients are admitted to the ER at UAB every year, and this number is expected to rise as the baby-boomer generation, also known as the “Silver Tsunami”, continues to age. It has been estimated that by the year 2030, the number of people over the age of 65 will have doubled, leading to 4 million additional emergency department visits annually by the elderly. When older adults are admitted to the ER, many have alterations in mental status that may mask the underlying reason for their visit, and as of now, there is no standardized method of determining the patient’s mental status in the ER at UAB. Without the patients altered mental status being properly identified, they may have a poorer outcome than their counterparts.

So far, I have met with both of the doctors that I will be working with, have toured the ER, and have met a few of the charge nurses that work there. Right now I am still sifting through research to figure out what will be important to look for when elderly patients are admitted to the ER. In the near future, I will be in the hospital working with the patients and helping to collect data.

This project is very near and dear to my heart, and I cannot express how much I look forward to working with the team I’ve become involved with. I also look forward to giving you all weekly updates on my progress and the progress of the project. Feedback and questions are openly welcomed! More updates coming soon…

Photo courtesy of:http://main.uab.edu/Sites/MediaRelations/photos/41949.jpg