Continuing Education to Help Emergency Care Providers Better Serve Older Adults
Emergency Care providers, who typically get little training focused on the unique needs of older adults, will soon receive more thanks to a $53,000 grant approved by the Winter Park Health Foundation through its Older Adults Work Group.
The grant, to the Emergency Medicine Learning and Resource Center (EMLRC), will enable the organization to create a series of accredited continuing education courses devoted to meeting the specific emergency care needs of the growing senior population.
An EMLRC survey, which underlined the need for more education, noted 86% of Directors and Education Lieutenants at Central Florida EMS agencies agreed that the current curriculum and instruction levels were not adequate to prepare first responders for the unique pre-hospital emergency needs of older adults.
The educational topics planned include:
- Normal Changes with Age/Older Patient Assessment
- Pharmacology and Medication Toxicity Emergencies
- Trauma and Musculoskeletal Disorders
- Elder Abuse and Neglect
- End-of-Life Care Issues
- Psychiatric Emergencies (Delirium, Dementia, Confusion)
This educational series will be made available to Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), paramedics and emergency nurses free of charge. The series will be available as a day-long program at the Winter Park Fire Department from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on August 26, and it will also be simulcast so people can participate off-site yet still submit questions via this virtual option. In addition, the series will be recorded in one-hour segments for viewing on EMLRC’s website at a later date.
This grant has the potential of reaching 50,000 EMTs, paramedics and emergency nurses practicing in Florida.
