Nursing implication for patient with agitation behavior - Dissertation Example

Nursing Implications Agitation is a frequently experienced problem experienced with Alzheimer’s disease that is stressful for the patient and the care provider. Patients with Alzheimer’s disease can no longer be physically or chemically restrained against their wishes in the absence of any medical necessity. This raises the importance of appropriate nursing interventions and employing non-pharmacological approaches to ease agitated behaviour in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The agitated behaviour of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease is a reflection of the discomfort being experienced by the patient, which may occur from pain, hearing and seeing difficulties, loneliness, boredom and unmet needs.

From the Keady & Jones (2010) study it becomes clear that the agitation, aggression and restless behaviour of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease are really an attempt to communicate this discomfort experienced by the patient. In understanding these communication attempts by the patient may be the key to the use of non-pharmacological means to address the challenge of agitation in these patients. The most valuable quality of a nurse is the ability to assess one’s self to help others by self-awareness.

It is crucial to know about personal stress that can meddle in one’s ability to communicate with patients. The review suggests non-pharmacological alternative like assertive skills that patient can learn by participating in structured groups and programs like walking program to increase mobility, teaching memory tactics to facilitate assistive device use and reduction of hypnotic and analgesics use. Homework also can be given to these patients to help them generalize these skills. Providing productive activities reduce the chance of inappropriate patient behavior.

The Frank case study provides a step-wise model of how nursing intervention towards employing non-pharmacological intervention means to address agitation in these patients. The first step is the information seeking stage in which the attempt is to understand the causes for the behavior. The next step involves creating a case file incorporation all the information gathered, and then reviewing the case along with the multidisciplinary team, relatives, and care providers. Such a review makes it possible to come up with the likely causes for the behavior, which leads to the third step of selecting the appropriate interventions and then applying them to alleviate the causes that are responsible for the behaviour.