MRKT20052 Marketing Management And Digital Communications

Dementia is a disorder characterized by dynamic psychological impedance and is related to disability in useful capacities and by and large, social and mental symptoms (Foley & Swanwick, 2014). It is usually caused by various factors like Alzheimer’s disease, depression, delirium, and so forth (Westendorf, Vaughn, & Duffy, n.d). This health problem affects many people. Dementia Australia (2018) highlights that about four hundred and twenty-five thousand people in Australia live with dementia currently. Females form almost 55% of this figure while males take up the other 45%. Even so, if measures to prevent or treat the disease are not developed, the figure is expected to rise to approximately five hundred and thirty-five thousand and 1.1 million by 2025 and 2056 respectively. This occurrence might lead to many deaths since dementia is the second leading death cause in Australia. It can be attributed to the 10.6% of all female deaths and 5.4% of all male deaths (Dementia Australia, 2018). In fact, Dementia Australia (2018) underscores that the health problem was the leading death cause among Australian females in 2016.

Importance to Nursing

Dementia as a clinical problem is crucial and relevant to nursing because of the various ways that it informs and shapes present and future practice. For example, as a clinical problem, dementia brings forth the need for patients to receive care from nurses. The care provided a patient with dementia is different from that offered to other individuals suffering from other diseases. In this regard, dementia highlights the manner in which care should be provided. Digby, Williams, & Lee (2016) talk about the association between caring for dementia patients and nurse empathy. In a way, dementia forces nurses to possess some level of empathy while caring for patients, a scenario that calls for person-centered care. This statement means that dementia also sets the platform for nurses to provide patient-centered care to patients by acknowledging the benefits of that move (Turner, Eccles, Elvish, Simpson, & Keady, 2017). This information proves that nurses should possess dementia nursing competencies (Traynor, Inoue, & Crookes, 2011), which might require training.

Personal Reflection

Reporting

While working at a nursing home, I managed to encounter various people who were living with dementia. Dealing with such people was difficult because of their jumbled speech, irritable behavior, restlessness, hallucinations, and so forth.

Responding

When taking care of one dementia patient, I decided to play the individual some soft music to calm the person down and gave the same individual a bottle of water to drink. Even so, the patient refused to drink the water and continued with the jumbled speech and restlessness.

Relating

This occurrence enabled me to understand that dementia nursing competencies are abilities that all nurses should possess to enable them to provide patient-centered care to all dementia patients. Training is crucial to ensure all nurses learn and internalize such competencies (Turner et al., 2017).

Reasoning

This incident enabled me to comprehend that knowledge, skills, and information concerning how to deal with dementia patients are vital resources. They enable comprehension of the techniques that can be used to engage with patients as well as offer them patient-centered care.

Reconstructing

This incident has made me resolve to learn more about dementia and its various aspects in the future to enable me to acquire all the necessary information, knowledge, and skills that are associated with the measures of preventing, managing, or treating this clinical problem.

Themed Discussion Post 2B

Aim

Dementia is a clinical problem that is affecting a broad scope of people around the world. Finding outstanding ways of caring for dementia patients can assist in managing the health condition. The literature search assisted in pinpointing these outstanding ways.

PICO (Quantitative)

Research Question

Does the acquisition of dementia nursing competencies or best practices by nurses improve primary and patient-centered care offered to dementia patients?

Search Strategy

The evidence was looked for using specific keywords. Some of those keywords include dementia, dementia nursing competencies, patient-centered care, and so on. Apart from these keywords, various databases were employed to search for the evidence. Some of the databases used comprise of EBSCO, Google Scholar, NCBI, to mention just a few. Finding the evidence required the utilization of specific methods. In this case, the methods used included identification of how recent and the context of the sources. The evidence’s context had to include dementia nursing competencies and its relation to patient-centered care. Moreover, it had to be recent to emphasize its credibility and relevance.

Best Evidence

Findings

The findings of the three articles presented in the above table outline the best practices or some of the dementia nursing competencies required to assist in improving the provision of primary and patient-centered care for dementia patients. Mary Benbow, Tsaroucha, Ashley, Morgan, & Kingston (2011) found out that the dementia workforce skills or rather dementia nursing competencies can be grouped into specific themes. Those particular themes include supporting and assisting dementia patients to engage in exercises, relationships, communication, person-centered care, and knowledge about dementia (Mary Benbow et al., 2011). Even so, this paper selected the first theme as the best practice of interest. Robinson (2007) also managed to highlight some dementia care best practices and divide them into six categories namely education, environment, care provision, family and friends, resident assessment, and organization. Just like in the first case, this paper focused on only one category, which is a resident assessment. It advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration, assessment, and development of personal care plan for dementia patients. The last source by Tsaroucha, Benbow, Kingston, and Mesurier (2013) found out that patient-centered care is one of the elements of a dementia nursing core competencies framework. It comprises four major factors, one of which is valuing dementia patients and their caretakers. The mentioned factor is of interest to this paper. Other factors include treating dementia folks as individuals, viewing the world from their perspective, and creating a positive social setting for those patients (Tsaroucha et al., 2013).

References

Dementia Australia. (2018). Dementia statistics for media. Dementia Australia. Retrieved 18^th August 2018, from, https://www.dementia.org.au/media/key-facts-and-statistics.

Digby, R., Williams, A., & Lee, S. (2016). Nurse empathy and the care of people with dementia. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, The, 34(1), 52-59. Retrieved 18^th August 2018, from, https://www.ajan.com.au/Vol34/Issue1/6Digby.pdf.

Foley, T., & Swanwick, G. (2014). Dementia: diagnosis and management in general practice. Irish College of General Practitioners. Quality in Practice Committee. Retrieved 18^th August 2018, from, https://www.demenzemedicinagenerale.net/pdf/ICGP_QIP_DementiaJuly2014.pdf.

Mary Benbow, S., Tsaroucha, A., Ashley, M., Morgan, K., & Kingston, P. (2011). Patients’ and carers’ views on dementia workforce skills. The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, 6(4), 195-202. DOI: 10.1108/17556221111194536. 

Robinson, J. G. (2007). Utilizing best practice in dementia care. Canadian Nursing Home, 18(1), 21. Retrieved 19^th August 2018, from, https://www.broadmeadcare.com/sites/default/files/documents/best%20practices%20dementia%20care%20-%20cnh.pdf.

Traynor, V., Inoue, K., & Crookes, P. (2011). Literature review: understanding nursing competence in dementia care. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20(13?14), 1948-1960. Retrieved 18^th August 2018, from, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/df13/2c1d7584d71f33cae5da978128f33d24871c.pdf.

Tsaroucha, A., Benbow, S. M., Kingston, P., & Mesurier, N. L. (2013). Dementia skills for all: a core competency framework for the workforce in the United Kingdom. Dementia, 12(1), 29-44. DOI: 10.1177/1471301211416302.

Turner, A., Eccles, F. J., Elvish, R., Simpson, J., & Keady, J. (2017). The experience of caring for patients with dementia within a general hospital setting: a meta-synthesis of the qualitative literature. Aging & Mental Health, 21(1), 66-76. Retrieved 18^th August 2018, from, https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/76132/1/Lit_review_ed_revised_submitted_clean_1_.pdf.

Westendorf, S., Vaughn, N., & Duffy, C. J. (n.d). Causes of dementia. Cerebral Assessment Systems, Inc. Retrieved 18^th August 2018, from, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7196/01a2a793c5028cd315d1573a8719e8bf0015.pdf.