Question

What is the difference between abuse and neglect? How would you recognize? What is nurses responsibility for child/adult/elder?

Answer 1

Abuse is considered as an deliberate punishment or harm on someone, either it may be physical, emotional, or sexual harm.

Example - There are many types of abuse like physical , emotional other than that some of the abuse include personalharassment, treating an adult like a child, isolating an adult from family and his friends, use of silence to control behavior, yelling

While neglect can be described as the failure to provide the essential care for an individual, leading to individual's injury or illness.

Example - someone leaving their baby at home alone when the baby is suffering from fever .

We can recognize abuse by analyzing following parameters

-multiple bruising or finger marks or other signs of injury .

-injuries which cannot be explained like how it caused .

-sudden fall in the health status with out any medical cause .

-looking uninterested ,dirty or thinner than usual appearance

-Unusual clothing or inappropriate dressing at different occasions.

- sudden mood swings with out apparent reason.

It is really a difficult to spot neglect ,we can recognize neglect only by observing the individual closely .Some of the indicators can be

Poor appearance and hygiene

Health and development issues

Family issues

Depending on the situation of a elder , adult or child .It is responsibllity of nurses to report any suspicious injuries to the hospital authorities and also to ensure the enforcement of law .A nurse should handle such a situation with or without the consent of patient or wishes to press charges. Depending on the type of abuse observed on the pay it is the duty of the nurse to call Adult Protective Services or Child Protective Services and follow it up with a written report.