Geriatric Nursing: Addressing Dementia and Health Needs of Elderly

This report delves into the critical field of geriatric nursing, emphasizing the care of elderly individuals, particularly those affected by dementia. It highlights the importance of specialized knowledge and skills for nurses in addressing the unique health needs of older adults, who are more susceptible to chronic health challenges and cognitive decline. The report discusses the essential role of geriatric nurses in assessing patients' mental and physical conditions, recognizing factors that contribute to dementia, and implementing appropriate interventions, including medication management and patient education. Furthermore, it underscores the significance of understanding the challenges and risks associated with dementia care, advocating for strategies to improve communication, prevent complications, and enhance the overall quality of life for elderly patients. The report emphasizes the need for continuous learning and the integration of gerontological content into nursing curricula to equip future nurses with the expertise required to provide effective and compassionate care for this growing population. It also addresses the gap in literature regarding nurses' knowledge of dementia and emphasizes how nurses can prevent the disease.

Care of the old persons 1
Care Of The Old Persons
Student Name
Address
Date

Care of the old persons 2
Importance of Geriatric nursing studies.
Geriatric nursing collectively means nursing or relatively taking care of people who are older.
Geriatric specialists are mostly found in sensitive departments of care hospitals, restoration
centers, nursing abode and solitude homes. It gives information on major effects that influence
the health of older people as they are more liable to have several chronic health challenges.
Geriatric clients need more health care attention than younger individuals. It is necessary that all
the nurses are required to acquire special knowledge about the older generation (Williams,
2015).
Care attention for older patients needs an appropriate evaluation of the elderly's health
condition. Physical, mental, cultural practices, natural conditions and health program procedures
may affect their health conditions. For example most elderly persons than young are prone to a
mental condition called dementia. It is not a disease in particular rather it is a word that involves
signs and symptoms that are related to the decrease of memory capacity and other thinking
abilities that are so critical and have negative effect how an old person carries out daily activities.
Graduating nurses must be inholding knowledge about dementia, its effects and what causes it.
One of the most common type of dementia is the vascular dementia which occurs mostly as a
result of stroke. The elderly's medications employed is a major contributing factor to dementia
so nurses in other medical field should be very alert when giving medication. Also deteriorated
communication, tribal or cultural deviations, and language impediment are some of the factors
that cause dementia. Short term memory is also influenced by opprobrium or neglect by relatives
in ways like being in an unclean environment, poor nutritional habits, social isolation, inadequate
help needed to improve their everyday activities without altering with the elderly's resources, and

Care of the old persons 3
lack of assistance to the older individuals to keep up their self-reliance. (deWit & Williams,
2015).
Integrated and aggrandized knowledge and skills in offering safe and effective quality
healthcare to older dementia patients in primary care show the ability to treat and prevent
dementia in older patients in basic care. Managing and negotiating within the systems of offering
health care services to the elderly patient in primary care supervises and ascertains a high-quality
health care service delivery for elderly patients. It also incorporates a comprehension of
inclinations in aging processes, coordinating and offering basic health care for the patients.
In working with an older patient, the physician or a registered nurse who has completed the
course and is about to graduate should: Evaluate the client’s mental conditions and cognitive
skills, comprehend client’s urgency and other chronic health complications. He or she should
also elaborate other factors that would cause dementia, such as falls, inability to control oneself,
altered sleeping sequences and sexual matters. The nurse should also be able to organize
medications, instruct the client on individual’s safety and disease precautions. He or she should
expound and suggest modifications to the clients' medication record and ensure an agreed
treatment plan that connects the client to the other local resources that are necessary. (Meiner,
2014).
The functions of gerontological advanced practice nurses in geriatric care (GAPN) are essential
practices to perform in the care of dementia patients. They involve offering focused health
examining, guiding, crisis interposing, and thorough care to the population. They play the very
important role as advocates in instructing the proper usage of assets and giving referrals that
support continuity of care made particularly for the requirements of elderly adults. GAPN also

Care of the old persons 4
Form and express a problem record. They also amend the process and new interventions as
required. (Miller, 2010).
In some cases, symptoms from different dementia patients are sometimes complicated and might
embroil treatments and attributes of a diagnosis of an elderly patient care. A graduate is
anticipated to have comprehensive knowledge and effective skills in the treatment of these
illnesses, including the unusual signs, disease processes and symptoms that are normal and
expected from an aged client. When offering care and help to the dementia patients, the nurse
should comprehend the various feasible challenges as well as endangering factors in the
treatment process as currently there is not even a single test for dementia discovered (Touhy &
Jett, 2015).
As a nurse who has graduated, you will also give support to other physicians and doctors by
assisting with health inspections. The nurse will also be needed to give other medical services
which involve executing orders of prescribed drugs and other treatments. He or she will also be
accountable for Reith patients for surgeries and assembling tools and equipment. The nurse is
also anticipated to uphold organized, modified records for dementia patients under their care so
that the doctor will have an appropriate chart on which they would use to make their
endorsement for care. Much of their biggest roles as the geriatric nurse would also include
frequent reporting (Kockrow & Christensen, 2014).
Graduating nurses should be equipped with knowledge on positive attributes of caring for the
dementia patients. They should develop the intimate attachment with the elderly patients by
reviewing their histories. These nurses should also learn how to work and emphasize

Care of the old persons 5
concurrently. It is also relevant to subdue their fears and the undesirable views and opinions on
the geriatric nursing.
Need for Knowledge of the Health Needs of Older Clients with Dementia
In spite of the significant part of the population becoming elderly, as well as a good proportion of
dementia clients using the health care system, the literature demonstrates that health care experts,
such as registered nurses and nursing students, lack adequate knowledge of how dementia clients
deviate from temporary memory failure in younger clients like the youths in terms of syndrome
projection and expected complications (Ralph & Taylor, 2010). Some registered nurses are not
aware of the fact that elderly patients have dementia and it is not common among the young
people, such as myocardial infarctions, pneumonia, drug effects, and anxiety. Some associates
pointed out that most nurses had inadequate and inaccurate knowledge about dementia in old
people than any other health professionals. Cognitive insufficiency may challenge the estimation
of pain which is as a result of nurses not being confident with their evaluations and disc lining to
give painkillers which may also impede death in a health care center. (Wilkins, 2018).
More health related complications resulting from hospital operations are commonly not exposed
or addressed by registered nurses. For instance, hospital operations largely contribute to a
significant decrease in the number of older patients, and hence many registered nurses don’t have

Care of the old persons 6
the knowledge in cautioning and treating some diseases. Another example is that delirium, a
common and a powerful life-threatening illness affecting hospitalized geriatric patients, is not
familiar to nurses (Miller, 2018).
So, how does this study address a gap in the literature?
First of all, it does not only address nurses-client attitudes, the study is a basic step towards
ensuring that they make some sense in their activities and understand the health requirements of
dementia patients. Although there no diagnosis for dementia yet, graduate nurses can prevent the
disease by digging deeper in the genetic history of the patient, by contacting a close family
member, going through his or her past medical records. In case the patient tends to have
dementia signs mentioned above the nurse should educate the patient to eat healthy, do creative
physical exercises such as songs that are memorable to improve his or her brain cells, drink a lot
of water, keep warm and clean during cold seasons and avoid doing so heavy duties for
prolonged time. The patient should also get enough hours of rest and sleep. (Eliopoulos, 2013).
Also graduate nurses can contribute in eradicating dementia in old people by improving their
communication skills. That is they should be able to communicate effectively, politely and
persuasively. Starting with their medications the graduate nurse should prescribe the medications
in writing form. This is because dementia patients tend to be forgetful and sometimes may end
up taking overdose, but when the dosage is prescribed in writing they can read and taken the
right dosage at the right time. All these can be made possible if the nurses would make regular
visits in the homes of the old to ensure that the elderly patients are consistent to the routine and
observes all the instructions given. Sometimes if the health conditions seems persistent in some
patients the nurse may recommend the patients to be trans located to other regions with different
climatic conditions that may be worsening their health conditions (Aiken, 2014).

Care of the old persons 7
Dementia conditions content requires being seriously and strategically included in the entire
academic curriculum. This means that the schools and departments accountable for teaching
clinical and surgical nursing, pathophysiology and pharmacology should be well equipped with
professionals who are aware of the differences amongst elderly clients and young clients in
physiology, response to treatment, and revealing of mental disease symptoms. This is achievable
by having registered nurses working in the medical environment to work with and guide the
graduates when recording and presenting gerontological data during pathophysiology and
pharmacology learning sessions (Capezuti, et al., 2011).
References:
Aiken, L. R., 2014. Human Differences. s.l.:Taylor & Francis.
Capezuti, E., Zwicker, D. & O'Meara, A., 2011. Evidence-Based Geriatric Nursing Protocols for
Best Practice. 4 ed. s.l.: Springer Publishing Company.
deWit, S. C. & Williams, P. A., 2015. Study Guide for Fundamental Concepts and Skills for
Nursing - E-Book. 4 ed. s.l.: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Eliopoulos, C., 2013. Gerontological Nursing. illustrated ed. s.l.: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Kockrow, E. O. & Christensen, B. L., 2014. Adult Health Nursing - E-Book. 6, reprinted. s.l.
Elsevier Health Sciences.

Care of the old persons 8
Meiner, S. E., 2014. Gerontologic Nursing - E-Book. 5 ed. s.l.: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Miller, C. A., 2018. Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults. 8 ed. s.l.: Wolters Kluwer Health.
Miller, J. C., 2010. Practice Questions for NCLEX-PN. 2, revised ed. s.l.: Cengage Learning.
Ralph, S. S. & Taylor, C. M., 2010. Sparks and Taylor's Nursing Diagnosis Pocket Guide. s.l.:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Touhy, T. A. & Jett, K. F., 2015. Ebersole & Hess' Toward Healthy Aging - E-Book: Human
Needs and Nursing Response. 9 ed. s.l.: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Wilkins, L. W. &., 2018. Lippincott Visual Nursing: A Guide to Clinical Diseases, Skills, and
Treatments. 3 ed. s.l.: Wolters Kluwer Health.
Williams, P. A., 2015. Basic Geriatric Nursing - E-Book. 6 ed. s.l.: Elsevier Health Sciences.