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Ethics and the Emergency Care of the Seriously Ill and Injured Elderly Patient

  • Emergency Medicine (FA Luchette and RP Gonzalez, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Geriatrics Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ethics in western medicine is governed by four basic principles: nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice. Acutely ill and injured elderly patients often present ethical challenges to the physician as they attempt to balance conflicting ethical priorities. Healthcare decisions in the elderly are made more complex by numerous factors such as advances in surgical care that may lengthen life yet worsen quality of life, allocation of resources, disparities of care, the presence of dementia, and need for surrogate decision makers. Communication is a key factor in providing the best possible care to the acutely ill and injured elderly patient.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California Davis Medical School, 2315 Stockton Blvd., Room 4206, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Christine S. Cocanour

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  1. Christine S. Cocanour
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Correspondence to Christine S. Cocanour.

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Christine S. Cocanour declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Emergency Medicine

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Cocanour, C.S. Ethics and the Emergency Care of the Seriously Ill and Injured Elderly Patient. Curr Geri Rep 5, 55–61 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13670-016-0156-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13670-016-0156-y

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