State of the science: alleviating mealtime difficulties in nursing home residents with dementia.

Three million people will reside in nursing homes (NH) in the United States, and over 50% will experience some level of dementia by 2030. People with dementia become increasingly dependent on others to manage mealtime difficulties and oral intake as the disease progresses. The purpose of this review is to explore the state of the science related to assisted hand-feeding of people with dementia in the NH, identify gaps, and inform future policy.

Mobilizing gerontological nursing education: The GNEC Podcast Project.

Capturing baccalaureate nursing student interest in gerontological nursing content can be challenging. Using technology, a joint project based on the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium (GNEC) modules produced podcasts focused on nine major topics of care for older adults: atypical presentation, cancer, critical thinking, dementia, diabetes, geriatric resources, heart disease, intensive care, and interdisciplinary teams. Each podcast lays a foundation of content for faculty to build on in the classroom and at the bedside.

Older adult mental health: Teaching senior-level baccalaureate nursing students what they need to know.

Within the older adult population, certain idiosyncratic aspects of mental illness add to the challenges of helping clients manage these disorders. Older adults are more likely than younger populations to experience physiologically based comorbidities, a dynamic that further strains coping capacities. Barriers to the provision of comprehensive mental health nursing care for older adults include myths and stigmas about aging and mental health.

Teaching strategies for atypical presentation of illness in older adults.

Atypical presentation of illness is a phenomenon where "seeing is believing." Expert geriatric nurses and clinicians know all too well the early signs and symptoms of this phenomenon, which frequently masquerades bacterial infections, pain, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, or other serious medical ailments in older adults. Students, however, as novices to clinical practice, require interactive learning approaches to reflect on the patient's illness presentations, help with developing the necessary skills to analyze and synthesize clinically relevant data, and witness resolution of an atypical presentation when found and treated.

Measuring mealtime difficulties: eating, feeding and meal behaviours in older adults with dementia.

Aims And Objectives: The purpose of this integrative review is to examine the instruments currently available for clinical use specifically to assess mealtime difficulties, a concept subsuming the domains of eating, feeding and meal behaviours in older adults with dementia; and to determine the quality and practicality of those instruments for use in clinical practice.

Background: Dementia is a leading cause of death globally and the 5th leading cause of death in the USA for adults over 65. Nutritional status is vital to well-being, therefore, instruments to measure eating, feeding and meal behaviours are important.

An evolutionary analysis of mealtime difficulties in older adults with dementia.

Aims And Objectives: To use the evolutionary method of concept analysis to identify attributes, antecedents and consequences of mealtime difficulties providing direction for assessment and management in older adults with dementia.

Background: Mealtimes encompass more than the physical act of feeding a person with dementia. Social and contextual considerations are vital considerations to improving nutritional intake.