By the time someone with dementia moves into a care home, they may already be experiencing significant weight loss and other nutrition-related problems. This may trigger further physical and mental deterioration.
Falls are a frequent and frightening issue for patients and staff, and they have physical and psychological consequences for individuals and society. They are costly in human and financial terms (National Institute for Health and Clinical ExceIlence 2004).
This Practice Question has been published with the kind permission of the Royal College of Nursing.
Could simulated practice with registered nurses improve the delivery of healthcare for older people in hospital?
Joint activities such as art, sewing, knitting, cooking or growing plants help relationships grow between the generations.
Delirium is categorised by a sudden onset of fluctuating altered consciousness with changes to perception and cognitive function.
Many of the residents are likely to have some degree of urinary incontinence or dysfunction. Urinary incontinence in this setting should not be viewed as inevitable. With good management it may be preventable. Incontinence is a symptom of underlying problems.
“Moving a patient relieves bedsores:” it sounds obvious today, but it took the work of an innovative nurse in the 1950s working with a group of elderly patients to realise it. Bedsores, or pressure ulcers are lesions caused by a number of factors including unrelieved pressure.
Dr Eileen Burns looks at how Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, better communication and palliative care principles can improve the quality of end of life care for older people, and asks: what constitutes a good death?
Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are protections for adults who lack mental capacity to consent to, say, admission to hospital or a care home for treatment or care. Caroline Cooke and Premila Fade assess why they are being reviewed and the Law Commission's proposals.
Literature searching has many uses. This short guide to searching for scientific literature is divided into different sections.
Samuel Willis describes the value of stories - telling them and listening to them. It creates bonds and humanises the teller and listener.
In its report Living Not Existing: Putting Prevention at the Heart of Care for Older People, the Royal College of Occupational Therapists seeks to show how doing the right thing for individuals can actually reduce their need for expensive care long-term.
Read our international journal publishing refereed original articles and commissioned reviews on geriatric medicine and gerontology