Dementia Management Practices - Essay Example

Nursing Questions Word Count: 1540 Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 09/ 08/ 2010 Outline Introduction Role of nurses in Care giving Dementia management practices Summary Introduction Dementia is a disease which affects old people within the ages of 65 yrs and above, it usually afflicts about 10% of people between 65 and 85 yrs with majority of about 50 % are aged above 85 yrs. Dementia is a condition characterized by memory loss, behavior change and orientation; it is normally characterized by degeneration of the brain functions and activity (Katzman 2001). The most common type of dementia is the Alzheimer’s disease; it is characterized by confusion and loss of face recognition in that they forget people easily. According to Wilcock (2003) the cause of dementia has not been known but it may result from brain injury or due to disease in the body. Main symptoms of dementia include: memory loss, poor communication poor performance of simple tasks and disorientation causing poor judgment. In summary dementia is a disease that affects the cognitive ability of the old and less than 10 % of dementia cases can be treated. Thesis statement: This essay focuses on dementia management and role of nurses in managing dementia cases. Role of Nurses in Care giving Dementia being a condition that affects old people, their frail health and conditions need sensitive care. In the health sector, the primary care givers are nurses and thus they need to be adequately equipped and prepared to provide care for dementia patients at the hospitals. Due to the fact that dementia is not a curable disease, good healthcare practices need to be undertaken in providing care that meet the physical, emotional and social needs of dementia patients (Bährer-Kohler 2009). The most important role nurses have to play is to educate the society on dementia in terms of how to diagnose, manage or give care to dementia patients. Most dementia cases go unnoticed and it only gets noticed when it has developed into acute dementia (Alzheimer disease); this mostly happens in developing nations (Curran 2004). Through education the public will be able to develop strategies which are prudent in the management of dementia. Another role that nurses have is to provide quality and affordable health care for dementia patients. The cost of providing care for dementia patients is costly especially in a private institution; this is owing to the reason that dementia cases require special and sensitive care. Public health institutions have an important role in caring for patients, as a consequence they have to develop solutions for dementia patients which allows care to be given at affordable costs to the masses (Barker 2008). Some solutions that could be adopted in the hospitals include, creating an environment where dementia patients could be taken by their family members under the guidance of medical practitioners within a hospital setting. Nurses in collaboration with research scientists play an important role in the management of dementia. This is because nurses being the primary care givers tend to interact with the dementia patients thus their observations are significant in the development of dementia management solutions. According to Landefeld (2004), scientists could use the observation and nurse reports to come up with preventive measures against dementia or solutions on the effective management of dementia. The role of care giving is significant in dementia management, as result of this nurses have a role in training care givers to provide support and good care in case the patient is situated in a home environment. Nurses also have the task of providing emotional care like counseling services to care givers as a result of stress in the task of care giving. Through training, nurses can come up with volunteer programs on how to train volunteers on handling and managing dementia cases (Lubin 2010). For example in America a program by the nursing fraternity known as CARE (creating avenue for relative empowerment), has helped in enrolling members of the society to take up the challenge in caring for dementia patients. The role of nurse in the management of dementia cannot be neglected; this is because today in the world the nursing fraternity exchange information on new cases and solution in combating dementia. In conclusion, we have to applaud the role nurses play in giving care to dementia patients since they work hand in hand with geriatric psychiatrist or neurologist in managing dementia (Giacobini 1997). Dementia management practices The management of dementia requires specialised care and attention, due to these reasons medical practitioners have come up with practices which are important in the management of dementia. These practices involve dementia patients, their family and medical practitioners to provide help needed in sustaining and normalizing the lives of dementia patients (Curran 2004). Some of these dementia management practices include; involvement of the patients’ family in care giving to cater for their physical and emotional needs. The involvement of the family members in care giving is advisable since family members tend to know the behaviour of the patient; understanding a dementia patient’s is important for the reason that the patient’s environment could be adjusted to suit his life. According to Bährer-Kohler (2009), care given by family members help in reduction of external stressor on the dementia’s patient, this helps in reduction of symptoms such as aggression and anxiety exhibited by the patients. Another management practice that can be adopted in the management of dementia is the use of prescribed medicine that is used internal stressors that affect dementia patients. The use of these medicine help in managing effects of dementia (Landefeld 2004). Dementia patients usually suffer in silence due to the fact that they have difficulty in communicating their needs therefore when care is provided by a family member they can easily understand the needs of the patients. The prescribed medicine help in reducing pain, anxiety and aggressive symptoms displayed by dementia patients and they should be considered in managing dementia. There are many practices that can be adopted in the care for dementia patients but the most common practices revolve around these pointers; overseeing behaviour problems, enhancing communication, appreciating dementia patients as human beings. The care for dementia patients requires patience and love and thus the care giver needs to seek emotional help once in a while (Barker 2008). Dementia patients can also be taken care of at a health institution. Most of the patients who suffer from acute dementia or Alzheimer need 24 hour care and therefore it usually advisable for them to be institutionalised (Katzman 2001). The cost of institutionalizing a dementia patient is costly but in such an environment, there are qualified and professional nurses to take care of the patients’ needs. Such programs have been successful in America whereby nurses who take care of Alzheimer patients get to know the needs and techniques of how to handle dementia cases. The successes of these programs have enabled research scientists to come up with guides and schemes on how to manage dementia in the society. Lastly, owing to the limited research in the field of dementia, common healthcare practises have been adopted in the management of dementia. The most successful among these practises to date is the involvement of the dementia patient in normal activities. When dementia patients are involved in the day to day activities they get hope of living and thus it acts well in reducing external stressors and improving the health of the patient. Detection of dementia is important as it helps in early management plans being undertaken to contain the disease and normalise the patient’s life (Wilcock 2003). However all management practices need to be conducted by a team comprising of the dementia patient, family members and medical practitioners. Summary When we look at dementia we see that dementia is a disease that affects the old people and as a result of their vulnerability due to old age they usually suffer in silence. Dementia patients’ lack cognitive ability, which make other people ignore their needs as human beings. With the increasing numbers of dementia cases every year more people are likely to suffer from this disease at old age and thus adequate and effective management of these cases need to be looked at (Landefeld 2004). Scientists have conducted a lot of research on dementia and they have devised methods of diagnosing and reducing the effects of dementia but no real cure has been found for the disease. Consequently dementia management practices have been found to be more effective in controlling dementia compared to use of drugs such as inhibitors, which reduce effects of dementia on the patients (Curran 2004). Finally it is well known that prevention is better than cure and for this reason we should adopt better dementia management practices in order to reduce the suffering of dementia patients. Although researches conducted have improved the situation as it concerns dementia, scientists agree that management practices such as cognitive and speech therapies help dementia patients to cope and overcome some symptoms thus they can carry on with life normally (Barker 2008). In order for us to combat dementia we need to volunteer ourselves in providing care for the old people due to the fact that one way or another we will all grow old one day. We should undertake this duty with love, patience and understanding while recognizing the efforts of care givers and medical practitioners in the care giving and management of dementia. Read More