Dementia care assignment – caring for patients suffering from dementia
Question
Task: how can nursing improving their life limiting illness skills usingDementia care assignment research strategies?
Answer
Introduction
This Dementia care assignmentwill investigate strategies that young nurses can utilize to improve their life limiting illness skills. Dementia can be considered as a loss of cognitive functioning which accommodates reasoning, remembering, and thinking (Lourida et al. 2019). It can go to a certain extent which can even affect the daily activities and life of a person. People with dementia even fail to control their emotions and their personalities can be changed. It is such a life-limiting illness that cannot be cured nor can offer any chances for betterment. The person with dementia deteriorates day by day until death. However, the misconception of treating people with dementia as mad people is completely wrong. Hence, proper acknowledgment is really important regarding the life-limiting illness to help a person with dementia. The Dementia care assignmentthereby will try to throw some light on the issue through its classification, staging, and grading. It will even identify and analyze epistemological data and survival rates internationally. Symptoms will be identified to confirm better acknowledgment for a person. With the help of all collected data, care or support will be encrypted for the patient and the family who is suffering from dementia.
Dementia care assignment Overview
Dementia is not a specific disease rather it is a group of conditions which gets characterized by impairment by a minimum of two brings brain functions like judgment and memories. It can have different types of symptoms to notify a person that he or she is going to have the life-limiting illness dementia. Medications are there to manage symptoms. It is such a group of social symptoms or thinking symptoms that interfere in the daily functioning of a person and affect it or hamper it to the worst. Dementia care assignmentresearch shows there is a treatment for dementia though the condition cannot be cured. It can last for years or lifelong. Medical diagnosis is very needed to manage the symptoms and to help out the person.
Dementia care assignment Classification
Dementia can be of different types with varying symptoms. Mostly, it can be classified into three sections Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease among which Alzheimer's is the most acknowledged type of dementia. 1 in 10 Americans above the age of 65 suffers from the issue. It can be marked through the presence of two proteins in the brain tautangles and plaque amyloids (ASSISTEDLIVING, 2022). Both of the referred can be observed easily through autopsy. However, diagnosing Alzheimer's disease can be difficult. It mostly occurs in people with more than 65 years. However early onset even can be there where people with the age of 30 to 50 can even be affected. Amy from the given case is an example of early onset as only in her forties she becomes a patient of Alzheimer's disease. Dementia care assignmentfindings show only 5% of people get diagnosed with Alzheimer's by this age. Amy has faced difficulty in solving problems as well as forgetting everyday tasks and also withdraws herself with passing time, hence, she can be stated as the Alzheimer's present. Vascular dementia occurs after a stroke as blood supply is less in the brain and kills brain cells. Dementia with a Lewy body can happen if alpha-synuclein proteins get damaged and proceed to the neural base. The particular type of dementia can be 5 to 10% for the age group of 50-85.
Grades
The Dementia care assignmentalso reports that Dementia can be of different grades or stages as per clinical dementia rating (CDR). If a person gets diagnosed with dementia then immediately doctor checks the clinical dementia rating score which conveys about different stages of dementia. The score of zero is normal. .5 conveys very mild dementia,1 is for mild dementia,2 justifies moderate dementia, and 3 is for severe dementia. Mild cognitive impairment is the condition that mostly affects older people to develop Alzheimer's disease. Mild dementia does not really affect the daily life of the person; though he can experience memory loss to affect daily life which is the case for Amy as she has started to forget important things. People with moderate dimensions need assistance for their daily life and severe dementia confirms mental decline with worst physical capability where Amy has reached with passing time as started to lose her ability of communication which was quite clear during the session with medical professionals.
Prognostic factor
Functional disability,comorbidity, low education, male gender, and older age mostly predict survival for dementia cases. Considering the prognostic factor type of dementia, the duration of the disease might not be that much impactful. For middle-aged dementia repetitive behavior, irritability, anxiety, and depression are the most common factors (Livingston et al. 2020). With the progress of the disease other changes are observed on this Dementia care assignment such as physical control, sleep change, etc can even be there. Amy was suffering from anxiety and depression and she has even started to change her behavior.
Epidemiological data
As per research 25 million people internationally are suffering from dementia and mostly are dealing with Alzheimer's disease. In both developing and developed countries,Alzheimer's disease confirms a tremendous impact on society, caregivers, and effective individuals (Livingston et al. 2020). Alzheimer's Disease is the most common of dementia as 75% of cases of dementia are from Alzheimer's disease. Itsstandardized prevalence for people more than 65 years is 6.4% for dementia and 4.4% in cases of Alzheimer's disease. The percentage is quite different in several countries. 5 million new cases of dementia occur every year. A similar pattern of dementia can be seen for vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease which account for 15% to 25% and 50% to 70% respectively for overall dimension cases. Epidemiology research regarding Alzheimer's disease and dementia in middle-income and low-income countries has got the attention in present years. In developing countries, dementia is of 3.4% and the prevalence of the disease in the age group of above 65 years can vary from .5% to 6% in developing countries. However, it is substantially lower compared to the developed countries. The Dementia care assignmentresearch even confirms that the prevalence rate of dementia in rural America and India is one-third of the rates of European countries. The prevalence rate of Alzheimer's disease in China is 3.5% which can be compared with western countries. As per a recentDementia care assignment report, 55 million people internationally are suffering from dementia and the research conveys that it would reach 78 million by 2030 and 139 million by 2050 (Alzheimer's Disease International, 2022). Though it is most common in age-old people, steel it can even be there among middle-aged people.
Illness trajectory for health problems
Several variations in severity or type or symptoms of dementia along with the pattern of development can be there; steel in most cases dementia accommodates typical gradual onset which is progressive in nature and irreversible. The trajectory even conveys three stages mild or early stage dementia, moderate or middle stage dementia, and severe stage dementia (Dementia Australia, 2022). For mild or early stage dementia, deficits are much evident in a number of areas like personal care, memory though the person can do all work with minimal assistance which is the case of Amy as in the initial stage or the mild stage she was doing all her household as well as office work with minimum assistance of her colleague, mother, and son; moderate or middle staged dementia conveys deficit with severity.Assistance needs to be increased to help the person to retain regular functioning. Severity dementia getscharacterized by total dependence on supervision and care of others.
Dementia care assignment Care and support
After the dementia diagnosis, it is very important to have a care plan. In order to take care of a dementia patient like AMY, it is very important for the close one or registered nurse to keep a track record of her activities. It will help to understand the severity as well as the duration of the progress of the illness. Hence,monitoring is most important for the dementia patient. As the disease cannot be cured; hence the only option left is to take utmost care of the patient where mental support is more important to make her feel hopeful and energetic. If the observation states that the situation is continuously deteriorating then it is better to call professionals like registered nurses which was exactly done by the family of Amy. Taking care of dementia patient is a crucial responsibility and demand the best effort and contribution with love and care. As per the situation or severity of dementia, the patient is suffering from the caregiver needs to be accompanied every time (NHS, 2022). The Dementia care assignmentcase study of Amy makes it more clear as initially, she was doing it all by herself;however, with the passing of time, she needs to be assisted by professionals every time.
Conclusion
The paper has analyzed that Dementia can be considered as a loss of cognitive functioning which accommodates reasoning, remembering, and thinking. It cannot be cured through medications that are there to manage symptoms. It can be classified into three sections Lewy body dementia, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease.Four trajectories of dementia are Mild cognitive impairment, Mild dementia, Moderate dementia, and Severe dementia. A recent report conveys that 55 million people internationally are suffering from dementia. The Dementia care assignment also shows that the nurse must consider the severityor situation of the dementia patient, the patient is suffering from the caregiver needs to be accompanied every time.
References
Alzhaimer's Disease International, (2022). Dementia statistics. Dementia care assignmenthttps://www.alzint.org/about/dementia-facts-figures/dementia-statistics/
ASSISTEDLIVING, (2022). THE THREE MOST COMMON TYPES OF DEMENTIA AND THEIR DIFFERENCES. https://www.assistedliving.org/memory-care/three-common-types-of-dementia/
Dementia Australia, (2022). The disease trajectory. Dementia care assignmenthttps://www.dementia.org.au/information/health-professionals/dementia-the-essentials/
the-disease-trajectory#:~:text=Despite%20the%20variations%20in%20the,in%20nature%20and%20are%20irreversible.
Livingston, G., Huntley, J., Sommerlad, A., Ames, D., Ballard, C., Banerjee, S., ... &Mukadam, N. (2020). Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. The Lancet, Dementia care assignment396(10248), 413-446. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/
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Lourida, I., Hannon, E., Littlejohns, T. J., Langa, K. M., Hyppönen, E., Kuma, E., & Llewellyn, D. J. (2019).
Association of lifestyle and genetic risk with incidence of dementia. Jama, 322(5), 430-437. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2738355
NHS, (2022). Looking After Someone With Dementia. Dementia care assignmenthttps://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dementia/carers/