The Role of Geriatric Nurses

Professional Paper
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The Role of Geriatric Nurses
Geriatric nursing specializes in providing care for the elderly population, implying the care is provided at home, in hospitals, and institutions such as psychiatric and nursing homes. Critical to the discussion is the fact geriatric nurses have a special role in society because the elderly population represents "50% of hospital days; 60% of all ambulatory adult primary care visits; 70% of all home care visits and 85% of nursing home residency (Thornlow, Latimer, Kingsborough and Arietti, 2006)." Specifically, such nurses have a role of providing bed side care to admitted patients and training them on how to use medical equipment such as a walkers. Additionally, geriatric nurses have a duty of advising their patients on what is, and how to use the best medication. It is notable that such nurses must acquire appropriate education by taking a bachelors or associate degrees from institutions of higher learning.
Case Study
Edna, an 87 years old widow is suffering from depression and needs urgent medical attention. She lives with Mary, her only daughter who takes care of her. She hates the fact that she has to depend on her daughter for almost everything. She was diagnosed with depression. Further she has edema and cannot walk.
In such a case, the role of a nurse would be to help Edna cope with the emotional and physical changes in her life. She needs to be trained on how to use the walker so that she can do most of the activities on her own and avoid feeling dependent on Mary. A geriatric nurse also needs to help Edna cope with the also loss of her husband so as to reduce the impact of depression.
Standards of practice
1 Assessment
Nurses should assess Edna’s condition by noting down symptoms for the disorder. Further, a geriatric nurse should assess the patient by listening to the patient with an aim of identifying any signs of depression. Critical to the discussion is the reality that listening to the patient would allow the nurse to identify symptoms for any other disorder or disease. In the case study, the nurses assesses that Edna was crying, sad, and lacked interest. The nurse also talked with Edna and she confessed having daily moods, lack of sleep and she wanted to be alone most of the time.
2. Diagnoses
After collecting data from the patient, the nurse diagnoses the patient using the information provided by the patient. The nursing diagnose that Edna’s is not coping well with old age as evidenced by excessive crying, sadness, and lack of interest.
3. Outcome Identification
It is crucial to highlight that identifying the outcome is important because it would enable the nurse in charge to monitor Patients progress (American Nurses Association, 2010). In the case study, the nurse predicts that appropriate treatment will make Edna’s symptoms of depression improve in 2 weeks.
4. Planning
It is crucial to highlight that nurses should develop plans that provide alternatives and strategies for obtaining the desired outcomes. In this case, a nurse should educate Edna on the, the need to avoid isolation, the need to reduce stress, need to exercise regularly and learn about t...