Nursing Reflective Essay on Dementia Patient Care Experiences

This nursing reflective essay examines the critical role of nurses in caring for patients with dementia. It discusses the increasing prevalence of dementia and the vulnerability of elderly patients to cognitive impairment. The essay highlights the various responsibilities of nurses, including providing care, treatment, and support, analyzing patients' home environments, and advising patients and their carers on enhancing quality of life. The essay emphasizes the importance of recognizing the individuality of patients, communicating warmly, and supporting medication compliance. It shares a personal experience of a challenging situation with a dementia patient, illustrating the difficulties nurses face, such as burdensome interactions and conflicts of interest. The essay also touches upon the stigma associated with dementia and references relevant research to support the discussion. The student reflects on the experience and identifies the need for changes in practice.

NURSING REFLECTIVE ESSAY 1
Nursing Reflective Essay
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

NURSING REFLECTIVE ESSAY 2
Nursing Reflective Essay
There is a high possibility of development of dementia as the age increases, implying that
this kind of disease majorly affects the older people who are most vulnerable to cognitive
impairment. Thus, such individuals tend to have co-existing problems that call for proper care for
them by the nurses. The care for patients with dementia is a critical responsibility of the nurses.
The nurses play various roles in caring for such individuals in the hospital.
Nurses are involved in the provision of care, treatment as well as support for individuals with
mental issues and dementia. A major role during this stage is the analysis of the patient while at
home and advising them including their carers on the major techniques of enhancing the quality
of life and health (Digby, Williams & Lee, 2016).
The other role by the nurses in caring for people with dementia is showing appreciation
of the individuality of the patients, acknowledgment of their strengths and communicating
warmly to them to assist them to feel valued and included. The nurses also support the
compliance of the patients to prescribed medication through working with the family as well as
them as a way of caring for their needs and quick recovery (Beck et al., 2017). The support
usually entails helping them and the family to comprehend the major purpose of the medicine
and thus take them appropriately. Also, the support helps in ensuring that the patients are in a
position to remove medication from the bottle and swallow it. The most crucial role of the nurses
in caring for people with dementia is the identification and recognition of potential signs of
dementia in a patient.
While in the hospital, there was one particular patient with dementia who I saw being
cared for by the nurse. The patient was stubborn and speaking too much. The nurses had a rough
time calming him down. It took the efforts of the family to calm him at least some who he could

NURSING REFLECTIVE ESSAY 3
recognize. It was such a difficult time for the nurses. From that scenario, I learned that nurses
generally play a crucial role in caring for the patients. Additionally, such nurses are faced with
varying challenges while caring for the patients with different diseases (Livingston et al., 2017)
For instance, in the above scenario, the nurses were faced with challenges such as burdensome
and interactive cycles as well as conflict of interests. The major stigma associated with dementia
is the labeling of such a person by society as being useless and dependent (Woods et al., 2018).

NURSING REFLECTIVE ESSAY 4
References
Beck, E. R., McIlfatrick, S., Hasson, F., & Leavey, G. (2017). Nursing home manager's
knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about advance care planning for people with dementia in
long‐term care settings: a cross‐sectional survey. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(17-18), 2633-
2645.
Digby, R., Williams, A., & Lee, S. (2016). Nurse empathy and the care of people with
dementia. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 34(1), 52.
Livingston, G., Sommerlad, A., Orgeta, V., Costafreda, S. G., Huntley, J., Ames, D., ... &
Cooper, C. (2017). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care. The Lancet, 390(10113),
2673-2734.
Woods, B., O'Philbin, L., Farrell, E. M., Spector, A. E., & Orrell, M. (2018). Reminiscence
therapy for dementia. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (3).