Medical care for the elderly Medical care for the elderly is one of many major issues currently under discussion by congress. Currently, Medicare is set up to help the elderly receive health benefits, but talks have risen to cut off the benefits once the person reaches the age of 70. The issues that the current health system for elderly is currently being contested by many with good arguments on both sides. From our group’s perspective, we say that cutting the benefits off at 70 will cause many seniors after the age of 70 to suffer greatly. Many seniors are able to keep themselves physically healthy until late 60’s, but for the seniors that suffer from disease or are hurt due to injuries will suffer from this once they hit that age.
The British Medical Journal stated: “Alcohol and Young People”, “…there was a general rise in the proportion of 11 to 15 year-olds who drink alcohol regularly, but also there is an increase in the amount they are drinking on each occasion.” (Health Effects of Teen Alcohol Use). Being a child is a time when the body is undergoing an array of significant changes, such as “hormonal alterations and brain development”. Also, it is a time when young people start to associate more with friends and beyond their childhood contacts. There is more pressure to “fit in” in our society. Kids may not be able to make the right decisions under these circumstances.
Common side effects from antipsychotics may include: •Sleepiness (sedation) •Dizziness •Weight gain •Increased chance of diabetes and high cholesterol •Feelings of restlessness or "jitters" •Slowed movements •Tremor Long-term use of antipsychotic medications may increase your risk for a movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia. This condition causes repeated movements that you cannot control, especially around the mouth. Call your doctor right away if you think you may have this
Upon growing older there many choices to be made and one of the most difficult is having to place the elder person in a nursing home when he/she is no longer capable of being independent. In the White American culture, nursing homes seems to be the popular choice to place their loved ones. This paper will discuss the demographics of the elderly with Alzheimer's disease and how the White American culture in America responds to the elderly with this disorder in the nursing facility, the writer’s personal awareness and attitudes prior to discovering information about the population and reflection after research was done about the population. Demographics of Elderly with Alzheimer’s disease It is not a normal part of the aging process when an elderly suffers from dementia; this is however, caused by an underlying condition. Dementia is severe loss of social and intellectual ability that interferes with their activities of daily living.
Dementia can affect adults of all ages and can often be confused with delirium. Delirium is a temporary decline in function of the brain that can be restored when the underlying cause is treated. Dementia is a progressive, non-curable process that is detrimental to both the person suffering from the disease but also the care takers. It is important as a nurse to be familiar with dementia and also to be educated on the different treatments used as many of these patients end up not only in nursing homes but also in the emergency department and medical-surgical floors of local hospitals. There is a growing
According to Meleis (2007) knowing includes knowledge based on observation, research findings (evidenced based), clinical manifestations and scientific approach. As a stroke nurse empirical knowing it’s very important in taking care of stroke patients. I determine patient’s neurological status by performing neuro checks frequently every 1-2 hrs as the patient’s condition might deteriorate the first 24hrs and perform swallow test to determine if the patient can swallow medications. Patient’s plan of care is based on assessment findings(vital signs, Glasgow coma score).If a patient is confused and very weak fall precaution is observed by activating the bed alarms, request for a PT/OT consult, if the patient does not pass the swallow test, a speech therapist is consulted. Sometimes patient’s neurological deficits get resolved after a few hours or days and that calls for change of treatment plan.
Retired pharmacist George Griffenhagen said, “Pills date back to roughly 1500 BC--and they were presumably invented so that measured amounts of a medicinal substance could be delivered to a patient” (“Mestel”.) Pills have since evolved into medications used to cure basically any type of illness. The strength of the pills vary, hence the ones that can be bought at the store compared to the ones that require a consent from a professional doctor, prescription drugs. Most people who request prescription drug help are in the last hope stage for curing their condition. In this case, prescription drugs are indeed practical and with
Statistics have shown each approximately 5,500 young people at the age of twenty-one died of the result of underage drinking; this includes about 2,000 deaths in automobile crashes, 3,000 as a result of homicides and 500 from suicides. Although, many adolescents drink responsibly or is abstain all together, binge drinking is an enormous problem. It is very important as a parent or guardian to talk to adolescents about the risk and consequences of binge drinking can have on
We developed the Prescribing Optimization Method (POM) to assist physicians, especially general practitioners (GPs), in their attempts to optimize polypharmacy in elderly patients. The POM is based on six questions: (i) is undertreatment present and addition of medication indicated; (ii) does the patient adhere to his/her medication schedule; (iii) which drug(s) can be withdrawn or which drugs(s) is/are inappropriate for the patient; (iv) which adverse effects are present; (v) which clinically relevant interactions are to be expected; and (vi) should the dose, dose frequency and/or form of the drug be adjusted? Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the POM as a tool for improving appropriate prescribing of complex polypharmacy in the elderly. Methods: Forty-five GPs were asked to optimize the medication of two case histories, randomly chosen from ten histories of geriatric patients admitted to a hospital geriatric outpatient clinic with a mean – SD of 7.9 – 1.2 problems treated with 8.7 – 3.1 drugs. The first case was optimized without knowledge of the POM.
How Can The Outcomes In Elderly Patients With Asthma Be Improved Cynthia Smith ITT-TECH Abstract A problem that is overlooked in our elderly patients in today’s society is the fact that many of them die unnecessarily from Asthma. Asthma is thought of as a childhood disease, but it is very common in the elderly population. When it comes to nursing care for our elderly we need to take an extra effort to check for Asthma symptoms, instead of thinking they are having shortness of breath in a lot of the cases. Although it will appear to be tougher to assess for Asthma in the older adults, as caretakers we can not underestimate the severity of this problem. There are things we could do to try and improve this outcome and the total care of the patient will also improve.