Specialized Nursing Care of The Alzheimer Patient

As a humanistic profession, the primary concern of professional nursing is caring for people it is based on knowledge derived from the biological, the physical, and the psychosocial sciences. Nurses must also under stand that health and health behaviors are inseparable from culture. When dealing with patients from a different culture, nurses must be aware that responses to illness are determined by cultural beliefs and values. When in a practice setting, the professional nurse's aim is to determine the mental and physical needs of the patient and to initiate an independent plan of care that emphasizes patient and family teaching. In addition, nurses conduct preventive and rehabilitative nursing measures according to needs demonstrated by patients and families. This essay will share professional nurses' experiences in caring for Alzheimer patients.

The following case study is presented to illustrate nursing management of a hypothetical Alzheimer patient. Common symptoms and treatment strategies are described with the intention of providing practical information that might be used by caregivers.

Mr. Jones was a slender, seventy-year-old man who wore bifocals and walked with a cane. He began losing his memory four years ago. He would drive his car to town to get the mail or groceries, and by the time he got there, he had forgotten the original purpose for the trip. Mr. Jones had always been a good cardplayer and had played with his friends at the lodge for years. He reached the point where he couldn't remember how to play cards at all. The people around town observed how the widower was acting and such remarks as "Oh, he's just getting old and senile" were frequently heard. Mr. Jones's condition rapidly degenerated, and he would not leave the house at all. Neighbors brought his food and mail to him and helped him keep his house clean. He had always been a very happy person, but his friends noticed that he now seemed to be moody and depressed much of the time. When he was sixty-eight, he could no longer perform various tasks, such as cooking, that had been routine for him. He hired a live-in housekeeper, Ms. c., to help him with cooking, cleaning the house, and doing laundry. Ms. C. noticed that Mr. Jones was sometimes disoriented as to place and frequently disoriented as to time. He would tell her that he had enjoyed going to the "picture show," when actually he had only watched a movie on television. One night Ms. C. became alarmed when she got up at 2:00 A.M. to check on Mr. Jones and found that he was not in his bed.

She searched around the house and the yard. Mr. Jones was nowhere to be found. She called the police and a search was begun. Mr. Jones was found two hours later in the tall weeds of a vacant lot four blocks away. His face and arms were bruised and he had a deep laceration on his lip. He told the police he had fallen several times while he was out taking the dog for his usual 9:00 A.M. walk. The fact was that he didn't own a dog, and it was nighttime. Mr. Jones was taken to the emergency room and the laceration sutured. The physician recommended that he be admitted to the hospital for observation and tests. Test results showed that mr. jones had Alzheimer's disease.

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Get all the information about the alzheimers disease , its causes, symptoms and alzheimers treatment . If you want know how to master a particular situation of Alzheimers patient visit www.alzheimersbasics.org/.

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