Pay attention to the health of the elderly from the beginning

Source of manuscript: Meng Runhong, Third Hospital of Tianshui City

The aging of the population in today’s society is getting more and more serious. It has become a common concern in the current society. There are mostly elderly patients in our ward, so that every elderly person can have a good inpatient life, a healthy body and a pleasant mind and body, and improving the quality of elderly care services is the key link to promote the nursing work in the ward.

Elderly patients are more susceptible to sentimentality during illness than middle-aged and young patients. Due to their lack of correct understanding of the disease, it leads to a heavy ideological burden, causing mental pain and trauma. In the practice of nursing care for elderly patients, the ward always pays attention to the disease characteristics of elderly patients, and does a good job in personalized nursing work according to the needs of patients, taking care of all aspects of the elderly, including: life care, rehabilitation care, medical care, Spiritual comfort and many other aspects.

Cui, male, 85 years old, has been hospitalized in our department all year round. The gait is unstable, and special care is required for eating and taking medicine. Therefore, the nursing staff will support the patient during the whole process when going to the toilet, and special care will be taken while eating and taking medicine. The head nurse in the ward led the nursing staff to conduct nursing rounds every day. During the period, it was found that the patient’s nutritional intake was low, and the responsible nurse was arranged to purchase protein powder, fruit and other supplementary nutrition for the patient to meet the collective needs. Revise the nursing plan according to the patient’s condition every week, and encourage them to carry out rehabilitation activities accompanied by nursing staff according to the patient’s condition.

Most of the old people in the ward have houses, pensions, independent financial ability, food and clothing Security is not a problem, the most prominent problem is the lack of spiritual comfort. There are many patients suffering from depression and anxiety syndrome, some of which are caused by the pain and anxiety caused by physical diseases, some are living alone and lack the comfort of family members; some are due to the change of roles that make the elderly unsuitable; The elderly may have been introverted, withdrawn, suspicious or sensitive in the past, leading to mental disorders and other diseases. For such patients, the head nurse will take time to provide them with psychological counseling and disease knowledge education, and lead them to the garden in the hospital if conditions permit. Carry out in-depth communication and exchanges, and further improve the rehabilitation plan after understanding their psychological dynamics.

Individual elderly people will obviously decline in memory, and are very sensitive to memory loss, and have Fear, so as to exacerbate the change of memory. Li, male, 68 years old, has completely lost his memory and cannot remember the names of his children. He only remembers a dream he had in his middle age. He said that his memory deterioration is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the dream. The old man was able to write a very complete letter, describing the trivial details of family life, and everything was very accurate. This shows that his memory is not that bad, but that the perennial fear has caused her to fall into a serious memory disorder.

For patients with memory loss, first encourage them to psychologically eliminate the heavy burden of “aging” , to help them establish correct cognition. Secondly,Ensure enough sleep, let the brain get a full rest, arrange short breaks and outdoor activities when using the brain, try to avoid excessive tension, anxiety and agitation, and prevent bad emotions from causing strong stimulation; at the same time, encourage them to improve their psychological quality and properly handle various diseases. Treat people and things around you in a harmonious, relaxed and happy mood, which will help prevent memory decline; prepare a small notebook if necessary, and record some important things as soon as they appear in your mind, so as to exercise your memory. memory.

Due to the frail constitution of the elderly, their physiology and psychology are different from those of patients in other age groups Therefore, health guidance should be given to patients and their families during hospitalization and after discharge, so that they can understand the causes of diseases and preventive measures, which is conducive to the recovery of patients.

To further improve the quality of elderly care services is undoubtedly a guarantee for the happiness of the elderly in their later years, and it is also a further improvement of the high-quality nursing services in the ward. To care for the elderly, start from the little things, from the side. (Contributed by Meng Runhong)