Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
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To determine if an educational intervention aimed at house staff will increase knowledge about and recognition of delirium. ⋯ A simple educational intervention aimed at house staff appears to be effective in changing house staff behavior. Improved recognition of delirium may lead to better patient outcomes.
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To characterize the limitation of care in routine geriatric practice in advance of and at the time of a patient's final episode of illness. ⋯ In one geriatric practice, care is frequently limited before a patient's final illness in the course of routine practice. In contrast to recent discussion focusing on limitation of end-of-life interventions or interventions in the severely impaired, these results suggest that there are multiple points in the course of a community-dwelling elderly patient's illness at which choices about level of care can be made. Given this opportunity, a significant number of elderly patients of their surrogates will choose less intensive therapy.