Nursing Care Issues and the Frail Elderly: Dementia

1759 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theory of caregiving stress

Walking into the room hearing the conversation could not be helped. Two elderly patients were conversing, one was talking about experiences in World War II and the other was listening intently. When questioned as to what they were discussing and why, the answer received was one that surprised and saddened. The patient telling the story explained “Sometimes my friend forgets all about the past, so I sit here and tell my stories and then it helps my friend remember.” The other patient replied “that is right, there are days I just can’t remember anything and my friend here….remembers everything and tells me all about it”. The second patient suffers from Alzheimer’s disease a form of dementia and apparently today is not a ‘good’ days. Dementia is defined as

“an irreversible, progressive impairment in cognitive function

affecting memory, orientation, judgment, reasoning, attention,

language and problem solving. It is caused by damage or injury

to the brain. An estimated 4.5 million older adults suffer some

form of dementia.” (Eliopoulos, 2010, p. 413)

Continuing to listen to their conversation, while assisting the one patient with getting ready to go to have a shower, the writer casually asked about the patient’s life, and was astonished when the patient said “well I don’t know my brain isn’t working right today” the writer asked the patient how many children the patient had and was proudly told about one son who is forty-one, and about a grandson, although the patient could not remember the grandson’s age. The writer was told that the patient was widowed but the patient could not remember for how long, nor could the patient remember how long the marriage had been. The patient remembers working for a company that so...

... middle of paper ...

... work published 1979)

John Hopkins Medicine. (nd). Nervous System Disorders - Alzheimer's Disease | Johns Hopkins Medicine Health Library . Johns Hopkins Medicine, based in Baltimore, Maryland. Retrieved July 18, 2011, from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/adult/nervous_system_disorders/alzheimers_disease_85,P00772/

Preventing Dementia. (2008). Memory (medletter),7-24. Retrieved July 4, 2011 from EBSCOhost. http://dproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.sapx?direct+true&db=hxh&AN=32600475&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. (2004). Caregiving strategies for older aduts with delirium, dementia, and depression. Nursing Best Practice Guidelines Shaping the future of Nursing, Retrieved July 14, 2011 from http://www.rnao.org/Storage/69/6404_FINAL_-_Caregiving_-_BPG_+_Supplement.pdf

Show More
Related

  • The Ethical, Legal, and Professional Issues of a Patient Being Hoisted in Chronic Pain

    1837 Words  | 4 Pages

    The scenario took place in a general medical ward where William, a 75 year old man, was staying in a bay with 3 other male patients. William had recently been suspected with early signs of dementia and had been in chronic pain for years due to osteoarthritis that affected his lumbar spine and knees. Arthritis is ...

    Read More

  • Dementia Effects the Elderly and Their Caregivers

    718 Words  | 2 Pages

    Butler, R. (2008). The Carers of People with Dementia. BMJ: British Medical Journal , 336, 1260-1261.

    Read More

  • Legal and Ethical Issues Encountered in Health and Social Care: Elderly People with Dementia in Residential Home.

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dementia is a disease which causes mental debility and affects one’s way of intelligent, attentiveness, recollection and problem-solving (NHS, 2013). As a result of dysfunction of brain cells in some parts of the brain it affects the thinking process then dementia occurs and it usually comes with age (Ibid). It is estimated that 560 000 people suffer from dementia in England and as a result the NHS and Social Care spend about 3.3billion (National Audit Offices)

    Read More

  • How Does Alzheimer's Affect Society

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    (Davidson, F. G.) Due to the nature of dementia being a neuropsychological disorder, those affected by the disease tend to look like they will not require much care, which, in reality, they often require more care than the caregiver originally expected, leading to stress and burnout. Another effect caused by this can be the caregiver blaming themselves by feeling like they are failing to give proper care, which, in reality, can often be very far from the truth. If the caregiver does not receive help from anyone else, the task of watching over the victim becomes a daunting twenty for hour task. Sometimes, the caregiver won’t be allowed quality sleep. Over 66 percent of home caregivers suffer from some form of psychological or physical illness. The most common illness that is resulted from giving care to Alzheimer’s disease is depression. The caregiver needs to monitor their emotional well-being as well as the well-being as the person that they are giving care to. Usually, giving care to those with dementia is actually more stressful than giving care to those with cancer. When the caregiver is a family member and not a professional, the emotional toll is often even greater. It is important for caregivers to remember that they need to take care of themselves first and

    Read More

  • Providing Quality Care for Patients with Dementia

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    care to the residents suffering from dementia. Banner et al (2009 as cited in Lee J.et al.2012)

    Read More

  • Still Alice by Lisa Genova

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lisa Genova’s grandmother, who was 85 years old, had been showing signs of dementia for years; but she was a smart and independent woman who never complained, and she navigated around her symptoms. Her nine children and their spouses, as well as her grandchildren, passed off her mistakes to normal aging. Then they got the phone call when Lisa’s grandmot...

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe's Dementia

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Dementia: Hope Through Research." National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). National Institute of Neurological Disroders and Stroke, 23 Mar. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. .

    Read More

  • Alzheimers Disease

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alzheimer’s disease is a complex illness that affects the brain tissue directly and undergoes gradual memory and behavioral changes which makes it difficult to diagnose. It is known to be the most common form of dementia and is irreversible. Over four million older Americans have Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to triple in the next twenty years as more people live into their eighties and nineties. (Johnson, 1989). There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s but throughout the past few years a lot of progress has been made.

    Read More

  • Social Work with Dementia Patients

    1782 Words  | 4 Pages

    The human brain is extraordinary organ. It stores our memories, vision, hearing, speech, and capable of executing executive higher reasoning and functions setting us apart from animals. Today we know more about the human brain because of medical advances and the development of technology. These brain disorders have been studied for years and many others would classify dementia as a mental illness because it causes cognitive impairments. The following paragraphs will discuss what dementia is, what the types of dementia are, perspectives of patients with dementia as well as the perspective of a caregiver to a dementia patient.

    Read More

  • The Alzheimer's Project: The Memory Loss Tapes

    499 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the film, “The Alzheimer’s Project: The Memory loss tapes” there was an 87-year-old woman with Alzheimer disease named Bessie Knapmiller. It seems as Alzheimer runs in her family because her older sister has the same disease. Bessie sister is 93 years old and she has lost her entire memory. Bessie sister does not even remember their family members. However, Bessie stage of Alzheimer is not as bad as her sister, she still drives and still remembers people. At times, Bessie does forget others. Bessie went to take a memory test in May and few months later, when she returned she did not remember her doctor or him giving her the exam. When Bessie took her first memory test she could not remember the previous president before George Bush. She

    Read More

  • Dementia In Everyday Life

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of the most common problems in elders is dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association describes dementia as a range of symptoms rather than just one single specific disease. The symptoms of dementia range from memory loss as well as a decline in thinking skills to severe symptoms that lead to the decline of that person’s ability to perform activities of daily living (What

    Read More

  • Understanding Dementia in the Elderly

    518 Words  | 2 Pages

    Delirium, Depression, and Dementia are some of the most common psychological diagnoses in the elderly today. The three D’s are difficult to differentiate between in older adults because they overlap with each other and can all exist in the same patient at once. Delirium, Dementia, and Depression all affect the elderly’s quality of life and often increase the risks for one another (Downing, Caprio & Lyness, 2013). For the purpose of this paper I will be focusing primarily on the diagnosis of Dementia, the prevention, and nursing measures associated with it, but first I would like to differentiate between Delirium and Depression because Dementia is often associated with the two in the older adult population.

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay: My Personal Experience With Dementia

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Difficult, depressing, and tragic” are a few of the descriptions generally associated with illness. Those who suffer from dementia, especially, undergo a realm of these characterizations. With this adversity in mind, most people generate a basic understanding based on education rather than personal experience. It is this preconception that can prevent us from gaining a true insight of one’s reality.

    Read More

  • Dementia in Older Adults

    2100 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction This assignment critically discusses dementia, a widespread disability among older adults today. It provides an introduction to dementia and analyses its prevalence in society. The various forms of dementia are elaborated with descriptions of dysfunctions and symptoms. Nursing Assessment and Interventions are provided in the further sections which discuss actions nurses should take while evaluating patients and treating them.

    Read More

  • Cognitive Disorders

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    KS Santactuz, M. a. (2011, January ). Dementia | Overview. Retrieved November 2013, 2013, from Dementia: http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/brain/disorders/662.html

    Read More

More about Nursing Care Issues and the Frail Elderly: Dementia

Open Document