wwilson2

I am a first semester nursing student and we will just start clinicals next week. We went to the extended care facility today and had a pt. assigned to us. We were supposed to find out what the reason for her admission was (diagnosis) and talk about the pathophysiology and therapeutic care that went a long with it. There were a billion but I would probably say it was dementia. I walked in the residents room to talk to her. I introduced myself and what I was doing and that I would be taking care of her next week. All she did was the same thing she was doing when I walked in. She was lying down with her arms in a sort of contraction and her hands trembling and making a bunch of weird unintelligible noises. Every once and a while she would say a word but she didn't seem to be "in the room," mentally speaking. I was talking and she didn't even acknowledge I was there. I kind of just froze up and didn't know what to say anymore and told her I would see her next week and left. It was really awkward. Next week when i go in to see this lady. How would you suggest I approach her and speak? I saw things on giving her easy questions like ones with yes/or no answers, but she didn't even seem to notice I was there.