The Needs Of The Elderly Patient

Each year, one out of three elderly people fall (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). The CDC (2015) also reports that once an individual has fallen, the chance that they will fall again doubles. Falls also contribute to an increase in direct medical costs. The CDC (2015) states, “Direct medical costs for fall injuries are thirty-four billion dollars annually. Hospital costs account for two-thirds of the total.” The amount of elderly people who fall each year along with the economic costs that result from falls indicates that preventing patient falls remains an important goal for healthcare workers including nurses. Nurses can use the nursing process—assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation—to prevent patient falls and meet the fall prevention standards set by various regulating bodies.

Brittany Nix- This writer believes a key point or concern for health care professionals is how to keep the middle age group safe while maintaining privacy and independence. In comparing the first research to the current, data findings revealed the incidence of falls in middle-aged inpatients were similar to older inpatients. Far too often this writer feels the nursing profession stereotypes the older population while overlooking the risk in middle aged adults. This writer believes this research challenges nursing professionals to implement individualized fall prevention for patients, regardless of

The functional independence measure (FIM) was utilized to identify patients who are at a high risk for fall and found that patients who fell had a lower admission and discharge FIM scores than the ones who had not fallen; they also found that those with lower FIM scores were stroke rehabilitation patient and had the highest rate of fall. FIM is defined as a measurement of disability specific to patients in rehabilitation; it has has 18 categories broken down into motor and cognitive components with each category scored on a scale of 1 for total dependence to 7 for total independence. The authors of the research article determined that FIM score have significance in predicting patients who are at a highest risk of falls and is more appropriate to aid in implementing interventions. With the above discovery, Salamon, Victory & Bobay (2012) undertook retrospective pilot study to compare the Morse Fall Scale scores and components of the FIM. The result from the pilot study yielded several important correlations between the Morse Fall Scale and the FIM scores. The study revealed that patient with cognitive impairments, and those with decreased ability to expressed needs are more likely to fall and no correlation with comprehension was found with the

Assessment tools are a necessary part of everyday nursing care. They provide the nurse with measurable means of keeping inventory of a patient’s physical progression from shift to shift. Assessment tools like the Braden scale which assess the patient’s skin quality; along with the falls risk scale that assess how high the patient’s chances are for falling; are two common assessment tools used worldwide. Along with these physical assessment tools are an array of non-physical assessment tools used to evaluate anything from the patient’s coping skills to evaluating their stress level. Three popular ones are the

As members of the baby boom generation get older and reach retirement age, they present an increasing challenge and opportunity for health care, particularly nursing. The growth in the number of elderly patients from the boomer generation coupled with a loss of boomer-age providers will pressure an already-stressed health care system (Hospitals and Health Networks, 2014). Nursing must take on the responsibility of not only meeting this burden, but improving life for the older American. There are several different ways in which this can be done.

Preventing falls and injuries have consistently becoming an ongoing challenge in long-term care facilities. Falls related injuries happen frequently and repeatedly that can cause serious injuries and impact the quality of life. These injuries may lead to loss of independence, injuries, and even death. In adults age 65 and older, unintentional injuries represent the fifth leading cause of death and 66% of these deaths are fall related (Rubenstein, 2006). However, the surrounding alone is insufficient to cause falls, but other factors play a part like medication, cognitive impairment, poor balance, and lack of nursing intervention. Primary care providers must aim to reduce the fall rate and promote resident safety. There should be a continuing communication where nurses

This week I took care of a 40-year-old man who came into the hospital after having multiple seizures at his assisted living facility. The patient had a history of cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, diabetes type two, and chronic hypothermia. The patient has both a foley catheter and stoma. He has been placed on contact precautions due to Klebsiella Pneumoniae in his urine. Safety precautions, such as, wrist restraints, gloves, and side rails upright are in place.

There are three essential components of healthcare that need to be revised to accommodate the elderly population: clinical practice, policy, and research (O'Brien, 2010). One solution to resolve the issues of physical negligence in geriatric populations is to promote educational programs that are involved in all levels of medical training and practices in order to detect and intervene when elderly abuse is suspected or evident (O'Brien, 2010). Implementing specific guidelines for elderly patient care, creating new methods and standards of practice for documentation, and creating a patient care model to demonstrate proper treatment of elderly patients should be a priority for the entire healthcare community (O'Brien, 2010). Healthcare professionals and legislatures should closely collaborate with each other in order to establish transparency. By developing uniform laws and policies that clearly state specific documentation requirements needed for elderly abuse, intervention and detection strategies for elderly abuse, and creating similar definitions for certain terms of abuse to avoid any confusion between local, state, or national levels of government (O'Brien, 2010). Most importantly, there should be more contributions towards

The acute care hospital selected has experienced many hospital acquired falls that have led to serious injuries and loss of life; therefore, there is a need for an intervention. ARMC has recorded a high number of falls among hospitalized patients. The majority of which, are elderly people 65 years or older. The adverse outcomes are unacceptable and therefore, an AOCD plan must be implemented to minimize hospital falls. An action-oriented plan identified nursing education as the key intervention strategy to drastically reduce the challenges of hospitalized older adults with falls.

Stuksnes et al. (2011) performed a study aimed at determining nurses' views on the causes of falls, the types of interventions to reduce falls, documentation practices, and reactions to falls in older patients with dementia. For the quantitative analyses comparisons were to be made between two independent variables: registered nurses (RNs) and enrolled nurses (ENs) as well as by level of experience (< 5 years experience versus > 5 years experience, on the above dependent variables. Given that the independent variables are subject variables there was no randomization. Participants were recruited according to proper research etiquette and ethical guidelines.

From watching the video, I learned about what happens during the span of time that a geriatric client is being treated with OT. Lindsey Mong, a Penn College student, goes through each of step of OT treatment with a client named Mary. She explained that Mary had a degenerative joint disease. Because of the disease Mary had, she had to get a total hip replacement. The first step that Mary went through was an initial evaluation. In this part of OT, the OT practitioner finds out what their client’s current abilities are. After that, the OT practitioners used clinical reasoning with Mary to figure out what it is that she hoped to achieve by the end of treatment. During this part of OT, OT practitioners also look at what the clients do to bring meaning to their lives.

Elderly and sick patients seek for comprehensive health care services from professional medical staff. Many organisations aim to provide beneficial medical support services to the aged people. If you also have an interest to assist the elderly people, then surf the web to get the details of the institutes offering aged care courses. Pursuing qualification from a reputed school will allow you to work primarily in housing aged care facilities under the supervision of an organisational service plans. Under aged care courses, you will have to attend the classes regularly. The course duration may vary depending on certain factors. The professionals will deliver the lectures effectively so as to keep you

Improving patient safety in gerontology is a critical thing that should be constantly looked at and improved. Patient safety can be improved by decreasing risk of falls, preventing skin breakdown, pressure ulcers, encouraging influenza vaccinations, and doing annual cognitive assessments. We are lucky to be in a society that always looks for ways to improve patient safety, especially in the elderly.

In older adults, many people take precaution so a grandmother or grandfather does not fall. People do not understand how many people actually do fall. Each year, about 3.1 million older adults fall (Linda, 2015). This is important precaution to take because many other factors can result from a fall. There are also many ways to prevent a fall. Nurses need to inform patients on the risk of falling by explaining statistics of falling, consequences of falling, and what measures can be taken to prevent a fall. While there are many statistics on falling risk, some should stick out more than others.

Patients’ safety is a priority in today’s health care system. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that hospitals will no longer be reimbursed for certain nosocomial conditions, thus placing a great demand on healthcare systems to prevent hospital-acquired health related injuries such as falls (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Nosocomial conditions, such as falls are conditions that are preventable that occur in the clinical or hospital setting. A fall is an unexpected event in which the participant comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level (Amador & Loera, 2006). Fall related accidents, injuries and death remain a major problem among hospitalized patients. It is estimated that one out of three adult patients over the age of 65 will fall (CDC, 2014). Falls have detrimental effects and impact on patients’ health and outcome as well as hospitalizations costs. Falls have attributed to broken bones, fractured hips, fear of walking alone, brain trauma, and even death. In 2012, the direct medical costs of older adult falls were $30 billion (CDC, 2014). According to Tzeng, Yin, & Grunawalt (2008), even the length of stay is affected, with inpatient falls with injury resulting in a 7.5-day increase in total length of stay. The attributed cost of falls, increased in injuries and prolonged hospital stay have a great impact on Advanced Practice Nurses’ (APNs) practice. The focus of this paper is to discuss evidenced-based