Nursing Problems of Dementia Patients and Ways of Solving Them with Reference to Nurses Experience

Abstract

Relevance of the study. In todays world there are approximately 50 million people who suffer from dementia, making this disease one of the main reasons for disability and dependency in elderly age. These patients require professional care, which can only be provided by well trained and educated specialists at care institutions. Based on the importance of nursing care, this thesis aims to portray the current problems, which are faced by nurses while working at elderly care institutions in order to seek for opportunities of improvement. The aim. To asses nursing problems of dementia patients and ways of solving them from with reference to nurses experience. The objectives are: to characterize dementia in clinical and psychosocial point of view, to indicate problems of dementia patients and their solutions, related to activities of daily living, in nursing practice, to identify problems of dementia patients, which complicate nurses daily work daily, to assess opportunities for solving the physical and psychosocial problems and improvement of nursing quality of patients with dementia. Methods. Literature findings were analyzed. A qualitative research method was chosen with the instruments of a questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview. 20 nurses who currently work with dementia patients or have recently worked for at least 1 year took part in the study. Results. Dementia can eventually impair all human vital functions, so the patients require constant professional care, appropriate medical treatment and an individual nursing care plan. Based on the study results, it is clear that nurses face various problems while taking care of dementia patients, related to eating, moving, communicating, and behaving. Those could be avoided and higher quality of care would be achieved if employees were provided with more nursing equipment, with greater opportunities for training and psychologist consultations.