Health Medical Homework Help

Foundation of Caring   

An 85-year-old widow is admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. Her past history is significant for hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and osteoarthritis. She lives in an assisted living facility in the community. The transfer papers that accompanied her to the hospital note that she is cognitively intact: “alert and oriented times three.” The RN who completed her admission assessment noted that she was “alert and oriented to person, time, and place, but occasionally responded inappropriately to questions.” The patient is documented as having normal hearing.

You are the nurse caring for the patient when her daughter comes to visit. Her daughter informs you that her mother is “very hard of hearing” but does not wish to use her hearing aids because they make her “feel old.” 

1.        Discuss how beliefs and attitudes about aging influence or alter nursing care. What aspect of ageism could have influenced the admission assessment in this case?

2.       When dealing with older adults, many people communicate with Elderspeak. Provide some examples of Elderspeak and discuss the impact this type of communication may have on the older adult. 

3.        Discuss effective communication strategies for older adults.

4.       How is communication different when your patient is in a bed or wheelchair? Practice communicating with your peers in different positions. One student should portray the nurse standing over a chair or bed while one student is the patient. Does it feel any different to conduct an assessment in this position? Does it feel different to “be the patient” with someone looking down at you?

5.       Go to the website www.americangeriatrics.org and look at the entire list of Beers’ Criteria and any products and tools that are available. What is your opinion of the tools and their usefulness?  Discuss some of the medication reactions that you have seen in your recent clinical work.  What patient behaviors did you notice that led to the discovery of the reaction? Describe any noted life-threatening reactions?  

6.       Choose 3 supplements/herbal therapy  of which you’ve never heard, list them, and note their health claims. Look them up later on the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine website at http://nccam.nih.gov.

·         How does that information compare to what the packaging claimed?

·         How much of the actual herb is in each one?

·         What other ingredients are shown as active ingredients?

·         What ingredients are shown as inactive ingredients?

·         What forms are available?

·         Any other differences you find interesting