Use of major and minor tranquilizers with older patients in an acute care hospital: an exploratory study.

Aim: This paper reports a study to determine how many older patients are prescribed major and/or minor tranquilizers during their hospital stay, and the perceptions of acute care nursing staff towards the use of such medications with older hospitalized patients.

Background: While considerable research exists on the use of major and minor tranquilizers (chemical restraints) with older people in long-term care, scant research has addressed the use of these drugs with older patients in acute care hospitals. Given the growing numbers of older people with dementia and delirium in hospitals, and the risks these drugs pose to older people, more research on the use of chemical restraints by nurses with older hospital patients is needed.

Neuroleptic and benzodiazepine use in long-term care in urban and rural Alberta: characteristics and results of an education intervention to ensure appropriate use.

Objectives: To examine the use of psychotropic drugs in 24 rural and urban long-term care (LTC) facilities, and compare the effect of an education intervention for LTC staff and family members on the use of psychotropic drugs in intervention versus control facilities.

Methods: Interrupted time series with a non-equivalent no-treatment control group time series. Data on drug use were collected in 24 Western Canadian LTC facilities (10 urban, 14 rural) for three 2-month time periods before and after the intervention.

A longitudinal study of home care clients and their informal carers.

The objective of the longitudinal study was to monitor physical and cognitive changes in a population of 330 older people being supported at home by health services. The participants were 75 years and older and classified as having moderate-to-high needs. A total of 210 primary informal carers were recruited to determine their specific needs and how they coped as dependency levels of their care-recipients changed.

Pain and agitation in long-term care residents with dementia: use of the Pittsburgh Agitation Scale.

Aim: to explore the relationship between total and sub-scores of the Pittsburgh Agitation Scale (PAS) and five proxy measures of pain in long-term care (LTC) residents.

Study Design: descriptive correlational design.

Sample And Setting: 58 residents in three LTC facilities in rural Western Canada with moderate to severe cognitive impairment took part in the study.

On a happier note: validation of musical exercise for older persons in long-term care settings.

This paper describes a quasi-experimental study of a musical exercise intervention to improve the physical, cognitive, behavioral status and life satisfaction of older residents in a long-term care facility in the United Kingdom. Twenty long-term care residents from three different units (n=60) were recruited and assigned to one of three groups: a control (C) group (no intervention), an occupational therapy (OT) group (comparison group) and a music exercise group (intervention group). Assessments of physical and cognitive status were made pre-intervention and repeated at the end of the 10-week exercise program and again 10 weeks after the completion of the program.