Age Proof Your Practice

According to International Trauma Life Support (ITLS), seventy percent of all ambulance transports involve the mature age group. Further, ITLS says thirty percent of all ambulance transports currently involve people over sixty-five. As we grow older, the body poses special challenges and changes. The high percentage of healthcare used by older people should not surprise us; however, the early start of the aging process---changes begin as young as 30--does surprise most people, and even in EMS we know little about normal body changes. If EMS providers can understand the natural variations brought by time, they can effectively treat aging bodies.

Consider the changes of time by body systems

With the years, nerves that transfer messages to move muscles for activities such as picking up a fork or driving a car become less effective at transmitting messages. Slower messages to the muscles mean slower reaction times and a greater likelihood of dropping things. Then, too, slowed reactions to emergencies can result in auto accidents that were formerly avoided. Programs such as 55 Alive reinforce good driving habits and can help compensate for slowed movements.

Similar to the slowing of messages, cells governing the senses become less numerous over time so that experiences can lose their savor. This becomes literally true with declining taste buds; food just doesn't taste as good, so we eat less and are less inclined to eat. Meat, for example, doesn't taste right, so we eat less protein. Women who give up on meat tend to easily become anemic. In extreme cases, anemia can kill. The loss of taste may mean we eat so little that we court malnutrition. In many households containing single seniors, cooking for one grows less attractive.

Consider the bones in the body next. As humans age, calcium leaches from the bones; this makes older people more likely victims of fractures. Joint and tendon degeneration leads to stiffness and decreasing flexibility with an increasing tendency to fall. The falls people might never suffer as youths occur more frequently with advancing age and result in breaks that can become life threats. According to ITLS, falls account for the majority of injuries in geriatric populations.

Bones such as the spinal column settle and height actually shortens. Dowager humps grow so that falls that can become spinal injuries grow difficult to splint with a backboard unless you use plenty of padding and support around the protruding prominences of the back.

Where bones articulate other issues of aging appear. Arthritis affects joints, challenging fine manipulations, once more increasing the frequency of dropped items. More dropped items increase the likelihood of bruises, bumps, and burns. Even if fine muscle control remains, constant pain can cause voluntary motion restriction. When arms and legs hurt, people don't use them. The less people use their arms and legs, the less able to use them they become. Again, the likelihood of falls increases along with dropped objects.

With lessening mobility the potential for isolation also increases. Loneliness and concomitant depression threaten people in isolation. Isolated patients don't want people around and most people prefer to avoid a Gloomy Gus so mental health suffers.

Muscle mass also declines over time, and, unless people exercise to maintain muscles, they will grow weaker and fatter. The decrease in the number of nervous system cells coupled with declining muscular strength feed falls. A curl of rug a homeowner once brushed by may now send him or her sprawling, resulting in an EMS call.

Aging eyes, too, contribute to falls. The lens of the eye clouds and pupil size decreases. The eye cannot focus as well, particularly at night. Long before retirement, people grow farsighted and cataracts can thicken, shrinking the precision of sight. Loss of focus makes it hard to see depths, and all this means accidents can increase and drivers may shun night travel.