Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is a continuous, dynamic process of reflection and dialogue between an individual, those close to them and their healthcare professionals, concerning the individual's preferences and values concerning future treatment and care, including end-of-life care. Despite universal recognition of the importance of ACP for people with dementia, who gradually lose their ability to make informed decisions themselves, ACP still only happens infrequently, and evidence-based recommendations on when and how to perform this complex process are lacking. We aimed to develop evidence-based clinical recommendations to guide professionals across settings in the practical application of ACP in dementia care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The psychotropic education and knowledge test for nurses in acute geriatric care (PEAK-AC) measures knowledge of psychotropic indications, doses and adverse drug reactions in older inpatients. Given the low internal consistency and poor discrimination of certain items, this study aims to adapt the PEAK-AC, validate it in the nursing home setting and identify factors related to nurses' knowledge of psychotropics.
Method: This study included nurses and nurse assistants employed by nursing homes (n = 13) and nursing students at educational institutions (n = 5) in Belgium.
Background: Blind placement of a nasogastric feeding tube is a common nursing procedure. Confirmation of the correct position in the stomach is warranted to avoid serious complications such as misplacement in the lung. Testing pH of aspirate from a tube is one of the techniques to confirm the tip position.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Med Dir Assoc
January 2012
Objectives: Moral distress (MD) occurs when the health care provider feels certain of the ethical course of action but is constrained from taking that action. The purpose was to examine MD in geriatric nursing care and to identify factors related to MD.
Design: Cross-sectional survey.
This study aims to obtain insight into the care process surrounding mealtimes within a geriatric-psychiatric ward from the perspective of the caregivers. A qualitative study was carried out in accordance with the case study method. Data was generated by participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups.
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