need help with assignment

jsteine1 · Aug 29, 2005

Hello, Helen:

Regarding the essay you are working on about Decubiti and Dementia. First educate yourself on both subjects. I know at the moment you may think they are not all that related, but they are. Consider how dementia can affect of the ability to react to discomfort by repositioning if they can,how it limits mobility and judgement, the anxiety and agitation associated, how dementia patients nutrition is often affected by their behaviors and swallowing issues, concurrent illnesses affecting appetite,staff reaction and sometimes fear of a combative dementia patient. Study the stages of dementia( there are 6) and their characteristics and how those changes could affect, by extension, skin integrity. The patient with dementia may feel pain and not be able to express it. The nursing implications are huge.

Then the reverse, take a look at the causes, physiological impact and treatments for decubitus ulcers. The staffing aspects play a role here as well.

You will quickly start to see the powerful correlation and the development of your essay will flow. Best of luck!

ClaudiaBMCCSN · Aug 29, 2005

As you will see later on, preventing pressure sores is an important nursing task. I am a student nurse and I had the opportunity to care for two patients with dementia. Both of them needed help to ambulate out of bed and, when in bed, they would basically stay in the position that I left them on. I used to change their position every 15 min and inspect their skin every day for signs of pressure ulcers.

After you read about dementia and pressure sores, put yourself in the position of a nurse carrying for these patients. You could write your paper as if you were caring for a patient with dementia. You could add nursing interventions to prevent pressure ulcers. What do you think?

Editorial Team / Admin · Aug 29, 2005

hello everyone. i am a first year student and i have an assignment to do, i don't know where to start. i have been asked to write an essay of about 3500words about dementia and pressure sores. all in one essay. i don't know if there is anyone out there who can help me with an idea on what to write. i won't mine getting the feedback through my personal meesage here on this site. i will really appreaciate it if somebody can help me.
thanks a million times.
helen
i took the liberty of editiing your post. e-mail addresses are not permitted, as this site is also googled by spammers from all over the world. anyone can contact you thru the personal/rpivate message system that we have here on site, or on this thread...........suzanne

:melody: hello and welcome to allnurses.com :melody:

there is a pdf format that you might find helpful from the alzheimer's society advice sheet found:

http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/pdf/apress_sores.pdf

hope this helps you!!

jsteine1 · Aug 29, 2005

While the impact with respect to correlation to decubiti is similar, it might be important to at least reference that Dementia refers to a wide variety of illnesses with different causes, Alchoholism ( Korsakoffs syndrome) is a form of dementia, Vascular ie strokes resulting in speech and comprehension deficits. Alzheimers is a specific form of dementia and the most common.

helen123456789 · Sep 1, 2005

Hello, Helen:
Regarding the essay you are working on about Decubiti and Dementia. First educate yourself on both subjects. I know at the moment you may think they are not all that related, but they are. Consider how dementia can affect of the ability to react to discomfort by repositioning if they can,how it limits mobility and judgement, the anxiety and agitation associated, how dementia patients nutrition is often affected by their behaviors and swallowing issues, concurrent illnesses affecting appetite,staff reaction and sometimes fear of a combative dementia patient. Study the stages of dementia( there are 6) and their characteristics and how those changes could affect, by extension, skin integrity. The patient with dementia may feel pain and not be able to express it. The nursing implications are huge.
Then the reverse, take a look at the causes, physiological impact and treatments for decubitus ulcers. The staffing aspects play a role here as well.
You will quickly start to see the powerful correlation and the development of your essay will flow. Best of luck!

Hello,

thanks very much for your help. It will definately help me a lot. I've atleast got an idea on how to go about it and what to write. Thanks again and i will let you know how it went.

helen