Delirium And Confusion Case Study

Patient living in the nursing homes with diagnosis of dementia experience Disruptive behavior. According to Burton et al. (2015) more than 44 million people have dementia. Dementia affects memory, thinking and social abilities. These symptoms severely interfere with daily functioning of the patient. Approximately 90% of dementia patients demonstrate psychological and behavioral symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, depression, hallucination, delusion, and aggression (Chen et al., 2014). Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a varied group of non-cognitive symptoms affecting demented patients. These symptoms are delusion, hallucination, agitation, anxiety, euphoria, disinhibition, night-time behavioral disturbances

Make the patients aware that you care through personalized welcome messages, reminders, or follow-ups regarding their wellbeing

The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain conditions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. 
Age is the greatest risk factor for dementia. Dementia affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six over the age of 80. However, dementia is not restricted to older people: in the UK, there are over 17,000 people under the age of 65 with dementia, although this figure is likely to be an underestimate.

Excited delirium syndrome is a rare but dangerous disease generally recognized by agitation, aggression, disorientation, and sometimes sudden death. Often associated with drug usage. There has been some documentation as early as the 1800s, but it manly started to come back around in the 1980s. These patients will often need to be restrained, usually by law enforcement, and pose a great danger to the crew’s safety until restrained and sedated. Excited deliriums cause is somewhat unknown. There is much conflict from researcher’s on the why and how.

This assignment will explore the effect of the long term condition dementia. It will focus on a service user who has recently been admitted onto an assessment ward and their family. It will explore the nurse’s role and how they will support and manage the patient’s illness. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) (2015) state that individual’s rights to confidentiality must be respected at all times, therefore all names mentioned in this assignment have been changed to maintain confidentiality.

Focusing on dementia, it is not constantly possible to involve the dementia sufferers in the decision making course of their care without encouragement and assistance by

Dementia is a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities enough to interfere with daily functioning. Dementia can also make changes in memory. Delirium is a serious disturbance in mental abilities that results in confused thinking and reduced awareness of your environment. Delirium usually starts rapidly with abrupt confusion, emerging over days or weeks and represents a sudden change from the person’s previous course of Dementia.

Dementia can be defined as a decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily life (alz.org). More than often, individuals affected by dementia are over the age of 65. In the United States, there are more than three million cases of dementia each year. According to World Health Organization, the number of people living with dementia is currently estimated at 47.5 million worldwide and is expected to increase to 75.6 million by 2030 (World Health Organization 2015). Dementia is caused by physical modifications in the brain and is known for loss of memory and mental abilities. It’s a progressive disease which means it gets worse over time. If diagnosed early on, the quality of life for people with dementia as well as their family members can be significantly improved. There are many different types of dementias although some are far more reciprocal than others. One of the most common types of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease. Other few types of dementias are “Vascular dementia, Mixed dementia, Parkinson 's disease and Frontotemporal dementia (Krishnan, D. S)”. All of the various forms of dementia tend to have similar symptoms which consequently makes it hard to determine the type of dementia a patient may be suffering from.

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

Over one-third of the surgeries in the United States are performed on patients aged 65 and older, and delirium is one of the most common postoperative complications in this population. Despite the high incidence of delirium, the syndrome often goes undiagnosed. Postoperative delirium is associated with adverse functional and cognitive outcomes, increased hospital length of stay, cost of care, and mortality rate. Knowledge of the risk factors that predict postoperative delirium will aid early identification of the patients at highest risk in order to facilitate preoperative optimization by managing comorbidities or employing targeted prevention strategies.

Enhanced assessment and nursing implementations to better prevent and detect ICU delirium will bring improved outcomes for this particular patient population. There are many ways to assess for ICU delirium. Two of the most reliable and easiest methods are basic observations from the bedside nurse and The Confusion Assessment Method (CAM). The CAM includes nine different criteria for delirium (1) acute onset and fluctuation, (2) inattention, (3) disorganized thinking, (4) altered level of consciousness, (5) disorientation, (6) memory impairment, (7) perceptual disturbances, (8) psychomotor agitation or retardation, and (9) altered sleep-wake cycle. A delirium diagnosis is given when criteria one and two and either three or four are present. The second assessment tool for delirium detection is made from nursing observations. The nurse observes the patient throughout their

According to Mc Donnell & Timmons (2012), “Acute delirium is a preventable, treatment, disorder of consciousness and cognition that commonly presents across many healthcare settings, including older care facilitates, medical and surgical ward, intensive care units and children’s ward”(p.2488). In their article, A quantitative exploration of the subjective burden experienced by nurses when caring for patients with delirium, Mc Donnell and Timmins outline a descriptive study. Even though prevention and treatments are well recognized, dealing with delirium can be very difficult. The purpose of this study is to examine the subjective burden nurses experience when caring for patients with delirium and to identify the individual aspects of delirium that nurses find most difficult to deal with. In the introduction of the article, the authors argue that beyond qualitative studies there is insufficient practical research on the impact and burden of delirium on nurses in practice (Mc Donnell & Timmins, 2012). This argument outlines the premise behind the research. It is not a research question, but a statement of belief upon which they draw in framing the purpose and focus of their research. The authors articulate their recognition of the fact that many researchers have only focused on the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention for delirium. In addition, they also recognized that nurses often lack knowledge and understanding

Dementia is characterized as a condition where the mental processes of cognition and memory start to deteriorate. It is described as a syndrome that hinders the daily lives of those who have it and is characterized by memory and thinking impairment. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s Disease and the second most common is vascular dementia. Dementia is a syndrome occurring usually, but not limited, to people over the age of 40 and is due to brain damage caused by natural deteriorating, stroke or can be brought on by factors such as excessive drinking or drug abuse. Dementia is best cared for in its early stages and, therefore, an early diagnosis is essential. Recognizing the symptoms by both the dementia patient and the

This assignment critically discusses about dementia, a widespread disability among older adults today. It provides an introduction to dementia and analyses its prevalence in society. The various forms of dementias are elaborated with description about dysfunctions and symptoms. Nursing Assessment and Interventions are provided in the further sections which discusses about actions nurses should take on while evaluating patients and treating them. Finally, communication, an important Activity of Daily Living (ADL) is explored and patient/carer advice is presented so as to maintain good health conditions in the patient.

The schedule of the volunteers is the responsibility of the volunteer coordinator and while requests have been made to have the same volunteers this is not always possible. Some days there may be a single volunteer to manage the numerous responsibilities without any assistance and on occasion, particularly in the evening, there is no volunteer and the waiting room is left unattended. The waiting room is the first impression customers, patient and family, see when they arrive for surgery. Leaving the waiting room unattended is a poor reflection on the department and can be perceived as unwelcoming. “The perioperative environment is often seen as impersonal and unfriendly” (Stephens-Woods, 2008, p. 7). Without someone to receive patients and answer the phone, communication becomes fragmented and impersonal.