Understanding Dementia in Senior Adults: Challenges and Best Practices in Nursing Care

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
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Background:
Senior adults make up a significant proportion of the entire Australian population.
According to a report published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, it has been
mentioned that 1 out of 7 Australian citizens are aged 65 years and above (Australian Institute of
Health and Welfare, 2019). The most prevalent disorder in old age patients residing within the
care facility is Dementia (LoGiudice & Watson, 2014). Statistical figure reveals that
approximately more than 400,000 elderly people in Australia suffer from Dementia (Bunn et al.,
2014). In addition to this, research report suggests that Dementia is the largest cause leading to
disability in the Australian citizens. It has been mentioned that 50% of the old age care facility
residents suffer from Dementia in Australia (Robinson et al., 2014). Dementia accounts for the
second largest reason responsible for the death of the elderly (Armari, Jarmolowicz & Panegyres,
2013). The rationale for the choice of topic can be mentioned as the complicated treatment and
management of Dementia in the elderly pertaining to the manifestation of challenging symptoms.
Search Methods:
In order to evaluate the best practice for the treatment of dementia in residential old
adults the electronic databases of PubMed and Google Scholar were scanned using relevant key
terms and specific exclusion and inclusion criteria. The key terms that were used included: best
practice, dementia, dementia care, aged, residential facility and nursing practice. The exclusion
criteria were used to eliminate the irrelevant research papers and included papers that were
published prior to 2013 and papers published in foreign languages other than English. The
inclusion criteria on the other hand included papers published between 2013-2019 and papers
that were only published in English.

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Findings:
Dementia can be defined as a condition of collective symptoms that include deterioration
in the mental ability and subsequently interfere the individual’s ability to manage activities of
daily living. Vascular dementia is the second most common type of Dementia which occurs after
a stroke (Miller & Boeve 2016). In addition to this, vitamin deficiencies and thyroid related
problems could also lead to Dementia however the condition is reversible in such cases (Wand et
al., 2014). It should be noted in this context that the symptoms of Dementia vary from one
person to another. The most common symptoms cover poor functioning of the memory, poor
communication and language, poor ability to focus and pay attention, poor ability of reasoning
and judgment and poor visual perception (Jones et al., 2013 The damage to brain cells impede
with the normal functioning of the brain to communicate with other cells (Bunn et al., 2014. This
directly affects the distinct areas present within the brain that deal with memory, decision
making or movement.
According to Bunn et al. (2014), Dementia in residential patients is characterized with a
number of challenging symptoms that include, behavioral problems, depression, disruptive
behaviors, difficult behaviors, inappropriate behaviors, acting out and unusual behavioral
symptoms. Another study conducted by Dyer et al. (2016), suggested that the most common
examples of behavioral problems presented by Dementia patients included verbal aggression,
obsessive-compulsive behaviors, social withdrawal, anger, suspicion, apathy, hoarding and
wandering. In order to effectively manage the challenging symptoms of the patient, it is
important for care professionals to understand the underlying reason for the challenging
behaviors. Illness and discomfort can be identified as the physical causes that lead to challenging
behavior. Presence of an over-stimulating environment also triggers challenging behavior in