Nutrition and Health Concerns of Old People - Literature review Example

Nursing in the Old Name: Professor: Institution: Course: Date: Word Count : 1500 words End of Life Care According to Campbell et al ( 2004) old people require a lot of help and attention in conducting almost all of their daily chores including feeding, taking a shower, emptying their bowels, dressing up and moving around. This makes it necessary to consider the kind of support and care that these old people require. The elderly are also exposed more to getting infected with various diseases considering the fact that their immunity level declines with age and so does the response to diseases. This makes it necessary for old people to be given palliative care including nutritional and dental care so as to help them have a better life. Palliative care is all about pain management as well as relief of symptom. Normally, old people complain of pain and this pain becomes severe when they contract diseases. In order to know about this pain, patients are asked to gauge their pain from a scale of one to ten or the patients simply use an equivalent analog to indicate how severe the pain is. Assessment of the pain in old people must be done frequently which will involve conducting mini mental exam to assess the intensity of the pain. Pain assessment requires one to possess assessment skills as well as therapeutic approaches knowledge. The pain is managed through a three opiods step level of drugs that takes away their pain. Drug use usually range from non-opiods such as paracetamol or aspirin, mild opiods like codeine or the very strong opiods like morphine. One can also use a non pharmacological management method to relief the pain which will include giving the patient a massage especially to those patients who are anxious or those suffering from headaches. One can also apply heat or cold for muscle spasms (Mitchell et al, 2004). According to Shega et al (2003)The elderly are more exposed to contracting diseases more easily due to their immunity which declines as one gets older and due to their in ability to move around which makes them more vulnerable to intercurrent diseases. Patients who suffer from dementia are more vulnerable to the pneumonia infection and an antibiotic use is recommended for management of this infection. Patients who have difficulties in swallowing are likely to suffer from respiratory tract infection while those who are incontinent are more likely to suffer from urinary tract infections. It is important to provide artificial nutrition rehydration to the old people since most of them having difficulties with feeding and especially to those who have swallowing difficulties. Old people tend to lose their appetite and they don’t enjoy eating food. They also lack feelings and that experience of feeling hungry. With difficulties in swallowing their food, old people are prone to aspiration pneumonia. However, the risk to getting infected with aspiration pneumonia can be gotten rid of by using percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy tubes. Malnutrition can be prevented through feeding and the risk of infection is eliminated by using percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy tubes during feeding (Morris, 2001).For those old people who have diseases and infections affecting the respiratory system and the cardiovascular, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation. This is conducted to those elderly people who are weak and rare compromised and it employs the use ABC’s (Airway, Breathing, Circulation). In the airway the patient is checked whether he or she has an open airway and should it be blocked up, the obstruction is taken away from the airway (Campbell et al, 2004). According to Campbell et al (2004) many old patients experience psychological disorders and can therefore be seen to have behavioral and psychological symptoms and will therefore require every day care. They have a lot of agitation and can be seen to have inappropriate sexual behaviour. It is common to see old people having depressions hallucinations and even delusions. After a comprehensive history and identifications of derangements in the patient, a plan of care is developed an involves identification of psychological and behavioral symptoms in the patient, their frequency as well as how severe they are and the impact they are likely to have on the elderly people. This is mainly focused on reducing both the behavioral and the psychological symptoms. Nutrition and dental concerns of older person outside of a health care facility Old people also commonly experienced oral problems which ultimately affect the quality of life they live. These restrict them in many ways including communication and the ability to feed properly. They can also result to disfigurement if not well attended to in good time. Dental infections greatly affect the health of the patient generally since the mouth is the main entry of microbial diseases to the human body. Oral infections result to blood borne pathogens which tend to spread widely to the other body parts through the blood. Old people require special dental care since they experience extensive oral infections and should they be suffering from other medical conditions, this could make the diagnosis as well as the treatment complicated. One way of helping them with this problem is ensuring that they brush regularly and making sure that they attend dental checkups (Ahluwalia, 2004). Old people tend to poses extensive oral infections since had cumulative effect of oral infection during their life time. The oral diseases can also be caused by other systematic infections which affects the oral cavity. This usually happens when the infection alter the flow of saliva which usually gives protection of the mouth. Old people mostly have a number of medical prescriptions as well being sick most of the time, the normal flora or integrity of the oral mucosa is altered by the medication tend. Due to drug therapy, complications such as bleeding disorders, tissue overgrowth, xerostomia, hypersensitivity reactions and lichenoid can be experienced by the elderly. Becoming old has a direct impact on the teeth tissues, therefore; taking good care of the teeth in the elderly is very sensitive. The dentins, pulp, enamel as well as the teeth themselves are always progressively aging. Due to lack of a credible and effective ways to deliver the dental services, the old people tend to lack care they deserve on to their teeth. This can be attributed to lack of understanding by the community around on the importance of oral health to the elderly and as a result those who offer to take care of them do not even pay attention to their teeth (Ahluwalia, 2004). Also, those who offer themselves to take care of elderly lack the basic hygiene device making it difficult to offer good care to them (Ahluwalia, 2004). Nutritional components such as carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins, water and minerals are also needed by the elderly people. As one gets old, the physical changes tends to alter the way the body is able to absorb nutrients, digest food alterations in the removal and excretion of waste products (Robert SB, 2006). To prevent constipation, the elderly patients are urged to take adequate amount of fiber in their diets. According to (Robert SB, 2006), in the elderly, indicates of poor nutrition may include tooth loss or pain in the mouth, poor eating habits, diseases, taking medication for long, unintentional weight gain or loss, reduced social contract and the need for assistance in self care and as result, this tends to make the old people to be more prone to poor nutrition (Roberts SB, 2006). The elderly are predisposed to development of protein malnutrition as compared to the young adult so they require more dietary intake of proteins. This problem will be solved after the assessment of the elderly about their nutrition which will involve an investigation about the, various food allergies they might be having, foods they like or dislike, culture and religion, swallowing or chewing problems and the medications they might be taking. The nutritional preference of the elderly should be considered since most of them could starve themselves if they lack their preferred nutrition which might result to unplanned weight loss (Roberts SB, 2006). Liberal approach to therapeutic diets can enhance the quality of life in the elderly. The immunity level of old people may decrease if nutrition in them is not taken care of and which will make them predisposed to diseases (Roberts SB, 2006). In conclusion, efforts have to be made to ensure that the old people have nutrition. Some of the things one can do to ensure they have nutrition include paying them a visit when they are taking their meals so as to see what their regular diet is like and checking their diets and what they feed on. References Miller SC. et al, (2005) A national study of the location of death for older persons with dementia, J Am Geriatr Soc Mitchell SL et al, (2004) Terminal care for persons with advanced dementia in the nursing home and home care settings, Journal of Palliative Medicine Hamel MB et al, (2004) Dying with advanced dementia in the nursing home, Arch Intern Med Shega JW et al, (2003). Palliative Excellence in Alzheimer Care Efforts (PEACE) a program description, Journal of Palliative Medicine Bunch TJ et al, (2004) Impact of age on long-term survival and quality of life following our-of hospital cardiac arrest, Critical Care Medicine Campbell ML et al, (2004) A proactive approach to improve end-of-life care in a medical intensive care unit for patients with terminal dementia, Care Med Morris J, (2001) Nutritional management of individuals with Alzheimer's disease and other progressive dementias, Nutrition in Clinical Care Ahluwalia K., (2004) Oral Health Care for the Elderly: More Than Just Dentures, DDS, MPH School of Dental and Oral Surgery, Columbia University, New York, NY Roberts SB, (2006).Rosenberg I. Nutrition and aging: changes in the regulation of energy metabolism with aging. Physiol Rev Read More