BACKGROUND The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes dementia as a major public health priority and a significant cause of disability.[1] With the aging of the Canadian population, dementia as a serious public health issue will continue to grow. Several research reports point to a potential link between COPD and the development of cognitive decline.[2-5] Depending on the population group and methodology, about 10 to 61% of COPD patients have cognitive impairment.[2,6] The literature indicates that cognitive impairment in COPD patients may be associated with increased adverse outcomes such as more prolonged hospitalization, difficulty with the instrumental activities of daily living (IADL),[7,8] and trouble with managing their disease and adherence to treatment.[9-11] Moreover, the cognitive impairment could affect the success of pulmonary rehabilitation[12] and smoking cessation programmes[13] in patients with COPD. DESIGN STRATEGIES 1) QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN The main goals of COPD management are to improve symptoms, exercise tolerance, and overall quality of life while minimizing disease progression, complications, exacerbations, and mortality.[14-17] However, the literature indicates that cognitive impairment could act as a limiting factor in managing COPD patients. Thus, it is imperative to give proper consideration to …show more content…
Moreover, it can lead to the development of guidelines for selecting COPD patients likely to have maximum benefit from therapeutic interventions. To examine the association between the COPD and the risk of developing cognitive impairment among elderly patients in Saskatchewan, a prospective 1:2 matched case-control design is
As people get old a few of them will experience changes in cognition with age related capacity rather than intellectual capacity. There are some people who get both disparities of mentally and physically impaired that will led into depression due to aging process of their body. Even though, the forgetfulness is a common among older adults, we as healthcare providers must evaluate altered mental status of the patients. “The evaluation and management of altered mental status are broad and require careful history and physical examination to eliminate life-threatening situations”(Patti & Dulebohn, 2017). Therefore, it is very important to recognize the importance of difference between normal age-related symptoms and developing new health problems that can arise in this specific population. As elders get older their memory lapses it frustrating to them leading them to be more worried about changes in their memory. Nurses have a unique capability to promote a cognitive health and determine the possibilities of potential cases of the impairment in elders. The movie “On Golden Pond” Mr. Norman was a perfect example and showed that his symptoms were interfering with his everyday live when he almost burns down the house with fire, calling Bill by his daughter’s name Chelsea and getting lost in on the lake. Even though, Mr. Norman had heart and dementia problems his wife never discouraged him to do what he liked such as
An estimated 47.5 million people suffer from dementia. Every 4 seconds one new case of dementia is diagnosed. Dementia is a term that describes certain symptoms such as impairment to memory, communication and thinking. It is a group of symptoms and not just one illness. Even though one‘s chance of getting dementia increase with age, it is not a part of aging. Dementia is usually diagnosed after a series of assessments that includes a physical evaluation, memory tests, imaging studies and blood work. It affects three aspects of one’s mental function, cognitive dysfunction (Problems with memory, language, thinking and problem solving), psychiatric behavior (changes in personality, emotional control, social behavior and delusions) and difficulties with daily living activities (driving, shopping, eating and dressing). “The median survival time in women is 4.6 years and in men 4.1 years” (Warren, 2016).
Alzheimer 's disease is a progressive deterioration of cognitive function sufficient to cause functional disability (Hannaman, Mitchell, Cross, 2011). It is the most common cause of dementia after age 60 with initial signs reflective of hippocampal dysfunction, with poor immediate recall and short-term memory. "As the disease progresses, visuospatial dysfunction (including with directions and geographic disorientation), due to parietal lobe involvement, and executive dysfunction (including difficulty initiating and completing tasks, reduced spontaneity, and apathy). due to frontal dysfunction typically appear" (Hannaman, Mitchell, Cross, 2011, p. 11-6). Median survival rate is 3 years because of
Diagnosing COPD is multifactorial, as stated previously, an all-encompassing nursing assessment and patient history must be conducted. When these processes are finalized, and subjective evidence points towards COPD, it is necessary to confirm the diagnosis with objective data. The definitive way to do this is by conducting pulmonary function testing (PFT); specifically, spirometry. On top of diagnosing, spirometry, is also pertinent for staging the patients COPD (Corbridge,et al., 2012). In addition to these facets, there are several other radiologic and laboratory tests that are helpful in determining the severity of COPD; they are not so much diagnostic, as they are informative.
During the second week of my clinical rotation, I had the privilege of being with the respiratory department, as a result of that my research of the Continuity of Care topic will be based on the topic of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). COPD patients are usually readmitted due to acute exacerbations also known as (AECOPD). (Laverty et al., 2015). In this paper, we explore the COPD discharge care bundles which have been developed by different authors. The care bundle consists of a short list of certain evidence-based practices to be utilized or implemented before discharge for all patients who have been admitted with COPD, based on reviewing national guidelines, evidenced based practices, expert opinion, other relevant literature, peer-reviewed journals and patient consultation. (Hopkinson et al., 2012).
Having a diagnosis of dementia means someone has had a decline in mental awareness sometimes it can be bad enough to restrict the patient’s ability to perform their activities of daily living. Many times memory loss is the first sign and symptoms. Since dementia is a life-limiting disease, it is essential that doctors and clinicians have the best tools available. In preparation for proposing Centra PACE replaces their current cognitive tool with the MoCA the writer will schedule a meeting with the Medical Director and Quality Coordinator to discuss the proposal. The writer would present all the relevant EBP data that identified a statistical significance that the MoCA could replace the MMSE the presentation would also show the data that proved the MoCA is a more accurate tool for assessing patients with (MCI). After receiving buy in from the Medical Director and Quality Coordinator, the writer would schedule a meeting with the Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Social Workers, and Registered Nurse of the Centra PACE program. In this meeting, the writer would offer the evidence about why the team should consider changing their cognitive assessment tool to the MoCA.
Alzheimer’s is an irreversible, progressive disease of the brain that gradually destroys memory as well as thinking skills. It eventually destroys the ability to perform the simplest chores. In many individuals with Alzheimer’s, the symptoms manifest after 65 years of age. Among the elderly people, Alzheimer’s illness is the leading cause of dementia (Stern, 2006). Dementia includes a loss of behavioral abilities and cognitive function including thinking, reasoning, and remembering. The loss of behavioral abilities and cognitive function may interfere with an individual’s daily activities of living. Dementia varies in severity from the mildest phase, at onset, affecting an individual’s functioning to the most serious phase when the individual must depend entirely on other people for basic daily living activities. (Pasquier, 1999). This paper will explain the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia since the two are greatly confused.
Dementia is one of the age-related disorders which commonly affect the aging elderly population (65 and over). In 2010, the approximate number of people who had dementia was 35.6 million and it is estimated to double every twenty years, to 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050 respectively. The incidence of dementia every year is 7.7 million which equals to one new case every four seconds (World Health Organization [WHO], 2012). In 2011, the Canadian baby boom generation initially began to turn 65 and became part of the elderly population which significantly impacted the fertility rates (Rockwood & Keren, 2010). In Canada, the elderly population accounts for approximately 13% of the population and one in eleven has dementia (Stein-Parbury & Eliopoulos, 2014). The researchers have estimated that by 2036, it will account for 25% of the population and 28% by 2061 (Bartfay, Bartfay & Gorey, 2013). There are many forms of dementia that an individual can acquire. Alzheimer’s disease is one of the common forms of dementia in the elderly population (National Institutes of Health, 2013). Currently, approximately five million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease (WHO, 2012) from which two thirds account for women (Alzheimer’s Association, 2014). The reason behind more women having Alzheimer’s disease is merely due to the fact that women have higher life expectancy and old age contributes to higher risk for acquiring Alzheimer’s disease. It is apparent that Alzheimer’s disease
The prognosis of COPD is variable, depending on how bad the COPD is. “Some people with very mild COPD, if they can stop smoking and they can take of themselves, shouldn’t have any shortened life expectancy” (Rodriguez & Sohrabi, 2015). Those with moderate to severe COPD or who developed the disease at an earlier age tend to have more issues as they grow older. By taking a proactive approach and being open to asking for help and support, you can effectively manage COPD (Rodrigues & Sohrabi,
Significance: In the elderly, depression (DEP) and cognitive impairment (CI) are the most common neuropsychiatric disorders; DEP in the presence of CI (DEP-CI) predicts a higher rate of conversion to dementia compared to CI alone.1-3 The neuropathology of CI in late-life is often a mixture
The ten warning signs of Dementia are recent memory loss that affects job performance, difficulty performing familiar tasks, problems with language, disorientation of place and time, poor or decreased judgement, problems with abstract thinking, misplacing things, changes in mood or behavior, changes in personality, and loss of initiative (Sapp, 71-72). Though there is no cure found for Alzheimer’s diseases there are preventatives and medicines to slow down the progressiveness of the disease. Unless a cure is found, it is projected that the amount of people 65 and older who will develop Alzheimer’s will triple by 2050.
Alzheimer’s can have a major impact on patient cognitive functions, so a patient at a level two or higher on the Allen Cognitive Scale would be able to participate in this
Thanks for sharing your post. Did you know that most people think that Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are one in the same because they both have similarities? Both diseases have an onset later in life. Both diseases are neurodegenerative, which means the brain cells become damaged and the progression ultimately lead to dementia (Chang, 2012). Let’s look at Parkinson’s diseases, studies has shown that patients who did not end up with dementia, did show signs of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). A standardized analysis was done on 1,346 patients, using different cohorts that performed verbal memory, visuospatial, and executive abilities. The results showed that the most common was visuospatial and the less was executive
Neurocognitive Degenerative Disorder (NDD), formally known as dementia, is a category of conditions marked by progressive or significant cognitive decline that leads to functional decline and loss of independence (Lewis, 2003; Wong & Leland, 2016). NDD includes Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s dementia, dementia due to Huntington 's disease, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and vascular dementia, with Alzheimer’s dementia being the most prevalent (Lewis, 2003; Simpson, 2014). NDD generally affects the elderly, and thus as the average age of our population continues to rise, the prevalence of NDD will increase right along with it, which calls for health care professionals to be trained in evidence-based interventions for persons with NDD, as well as increased research into cures and effective pharmacological treatments (Simpson, 2014). While there are some pharmacological treatments for NDD, in general they are only modestly effective and often have unfavorable side effects, and thus the treatments for NDD are currently nonpharmacological in nature (McLaren, LaMantia, & Callahan, 2013; Schmid et al., 2015; Wong & Leland, 2016). Occupational therapy (OT), rehabilitation that focuses on helping people be able to participate in meaningful activities of daily life, or occupations, is one approach to nonpharmacological treatments that has many evidence based-interventions for NDD patients ("Occupational Therapy Practice Framework" 2002). However, it is important to note that OT
An accumulating body of evidence studying both clinical and subclinical CVD has shown a consistent link between poor cardiovascular health and cognitive impairment. For example, in the Rotterdam study (Breteler et al., 1994), of the 4971 subjects who participated in the study,