A June 2013 study published in the Journal of American Medical Directors Association found that apathy is the behavioral symptom most strongly correlated with weight loss in nursing home residents. This comes as a surprise because it was commonly believed that depression was most closely related to weight loss in…
It is no secret that taking care of the elderly in a nursing home is an incredibly important role that carries with it responsibilities of magnanimous proportions. In addition to offering physical aid to avoid falls and encourage mobility through physical exercises, nurses must also build rapport with their residents…
A 2013 study conducted by BioMed Central Geriatrics found that there is a strong positive correlation between pain and disruptive behaviors displayed by the elderly suffering from dementia. It explains that such behavior is often expressed through aggression or agitation, which increases these patients’ risk for injuries and hospitalizations. In…
According to an article in Bloomberg News, the for-profit private nursing home industry overbills Medicare by 1.5 billion dollars a year by conducting unnecessary procedures and therapy on their patients. This, however, is not the only way that for-profit nursing homes have been using unlawful methods to increase profits. Nursing…
The Care Quality Commission recently published a report called “The state of health care and adult social care in England” that reveals problems that are universal to long-term care facilities. The report concluded that three factors can be linked to low quality of care in nursing homes: a culture where…
In every calendar year, roughly 25% of all the patients in a nursing home are transferred to a hospital or emergency room. There have been recent concerns within the healthcare community that transfer rates are higher than what they should be. A recently published study looks at the frequency of…
Caring for the elderly is no easy task. While some elderly adults require acute care in skilled nursing facilities, others remain at home, often living with their children. Regardless of where they live, caregivers often experience burnout due to the high levels of stress encountered when caring for the elderly.…
A recent article titled “Caring for elders: the role of registered nurses in nursing homes” emphasized the great importance of staffing a sufficient amount of registered nurses (RNs) in nursing homes. The article refers to RNs as the “linchpin” of nursing homes as they are expected to organize innovative activities,…
In skilled nursing facilities, one of the busiest and most hectic times of the day is mealtime. For dementia patients, mealtime is an extremely significant indicator of quality of life. Recently, a study titled “Factor’s Affecting Independence in Eating among Elderly with Alzheimer’s Disease” was published in the journal of…
While polypharmacy, the use of multiple drugs simultaneously, is known to have dangerous effects on the physical and psychological health of patients, other causes of adverse drug reactions among the elderly population are lesser known. A study, titled “Geriatric Conditions and Adverse Drug Reaction in Elderly Hospitalized Patients,” published in…