Nursing Case Study Dementia Care

Three million people over the age of 65 are diagnosed with the irreversible condition known as dementia, a disorder of the brain that will cause memory loss and difficulty with communicating. Many people mistake dementia as an illness, but it really is a set of symptoms that cause impaired thinking and memory. How can we better understand dementia in order to give the best care towards dementia patients? Spreading awareness of this disease is important so that people can catch the symptoms early enough to protect the health of Canadian older adults so that they can maximize their quality of life. It is also an important issue in nursing practice because nurses need to be aware of the proper care needed to be given to dementia patients as it

The study suggests that dementia patients change due to their progressive loss of capacity. Due to this loss of knowledge base, the unintentional outcome could be the abuse or neglect of the patient with dementia (Levin, et al., 2003), resulting in agitated and violent behavior as an unintended result. Dr. Tom Kit-wood observed that the manner in which people with dementia were cared for contributed greatly to their experience. This is why the role of the nurse in dementia care is so important. Person-centered care of dementia patients is a philosophy the recognizes that these individuals have equal right to dignity, respect and to participate fully in their environment. The study also found that when living in a long term care home, it is important that it has a homelike habitat to provide home-like experiences for residents. The study found that these environments have dramatically reduced the incidence of agitated and violent behaviors. Due to the loss of verbal communication, the nurse’s role is dependent primarily on non-verbal communication. The nurse must get to know the patient’s non-verbal’s such as gestures, body language and facial expressions. It is important for nurses to understand rather than manage the patient’s

The stigma behind persons with dementia is that they are less than fully human. This study discusses the importance of individual personhood care in order to preserve autonomy of the individual and contributes to a personalized care environment in which the individual can thrive. Person-centered care can improve the quality of life for persons living with dementia. Preserving personhood is essential for the physical and mental well-being of persons with dementia (Buron, 2008). When nursing staff are educated and trained in person-centered care, they report greater job satisfaction and there is also decreased staff turnover. Life story work is a creative method for discovering the person behind the patient. It involves nurses working with a person and their family to find out about their life, recording the information, and then using the information with the person in their care (McKewown, et al., 2010). This intervention is relevant to understanding dementia in the elderly because nurses have the ability of enhancing a dementia patient’s quality of life, and person-centered care is a way to achieve