Objective: Women have atypical chest pain more than men do. When women present of the Emergency Department with coronary heart disease, they commonly have vague symptoms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if there was a gender difference in treatment of patients with chest pain in the Emergency Department. Design: A descriptive design was used. Setting: The study was conducted in a 17-bed emergency department in a small northeastern hospital. Sample: The sample included sixty subjects who were thirty years of age or older who came to the Emergency Department during a two week period with the complaint of chest pain. Methodolgy: The data were collected through a record review of the Emergency Department chart. The following information was gathered from the record: age, sex, race, documentation of EKG, cardiac emyzmes drawn, and admission to hospital. Results: The findings revealed that all sixty patients with the complain of chest pain had an EKG documented. More men with the complaint of chest pain had cardiac emzymes studies completed than women. Hospital admissions to evaluate the chest pain were higher in men that women. Conclusions: The Emergency Department health care providers may need to redirect their efforts towards equality for treatment of chest pain for both men and women. Men and women need to be educated about the typical and atypical signs and symptoms of angina and myocardial infarction. Women need to be targeted because commonly their symptoms are atypical.
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