Caring for the Elderly

Caring for the elderly is one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs in nursing. Demanding a great deal of tact and care, looking after elderly patients is a trying and testing job, although it is one of the most necessary and most sought after positions in modern times. Elderly patients require care for a number of reasons, and these each carry their own complexities and challenges which must be met by the carer.

For some elderly patients, care is a round the clock affair, and this means you also have to be dedicated to patient’s well being. On top of that, patients require genuine attention, which extends beyond the hours of the job. A carer for the elderly must be a genuinely caring person, willing to commit to a career in people. At times it can be a demoralising and depressing job, but at the end of the day, the difference good care can make to quality of life is substantial.

Amongst other things, elderly patients need human company and companionship, and a good carer should have the ability to listen and interact on many different levels. It is a good idea to come with plenty anecdotes, and a good knowledge of current affairs to keep your patients amused whilst you provide them with essential care to improve the quality of their lives. Additionally, it requires patience. Elderly patients can, at times, be set in their ways, and can find it hard to accept help and treatment from someone younger than themselves. However, it is essential to remember that the patients are people too, with their own opinions and dignity. In nursing the elderly, it is a case of striking a balance between offering care and assistance and understanding the mindset of the patient, and this is arguably one of the most difficult things about the job.

Caring for the elderly is not a job for everyone, but it is a job that many would find appealing. Working with the elderly can be very rewarding, and the loyalty and respect you can expect in return for your help is heart-warming. Furthermore, many patients will adopt you and care for you as their own, creating a uniquely bonded two-way relationship. It is this relationship which makes caring a job that is worth far more than any wage, and is something which can provide the real sense of job satisfaction which can’t be found anywhere.

NO Nursing Homes…In Home Care Instead! Nursing home hit hard by abuse allegations

When an elderly woman with dementia drooled while under the care of two teenage nursing home assistants, one of the young women allegedly spit into her mouth. When residents screamed or hit, the two would clamp a hand over their mouths or poke them in the back or genitals.

At one point, one of the assistants crawled into bed with a Good Samaritan Society resident and simulated having sex with her, according to a criminal complaint.

The young women thought of their actions “as a joke,” a co-worker told investigators from the state Department of Health, which produced a report detailing the abuse in numbing detail.

But Brianna Marie Broitzman, 19, and Ashton Michelle Larson, 18, each face up to a year in jail and $3,000 fine if convicted of all the charges against them. Prosecutors say the two inflicted humiliating physical, emotional and sexual abuse on 15 residents suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or both.

“I’ve been in the business for 30 years. I have never seen anything like what we’re dealing with here,” said Renae Peterson, the nursing supervisor at Good Samaritan. “Why would anybody do this? I don’t know.”

Four other teenage girls who worked as aides have been charged in juvenile court with failing to report the abuse.

Broitzman, who faces 11 charges, and Larson, who faces 10, are to be arraigned in Freeborn County District Court on Jan. 21. The charges include assault, abuse of a vulnerable adult by a caregiver, abuse of a vulnerable adult with sexual contact, disorderly conduct and failing to report suspected maltreatment.

Broitzman’s attorney, Larry Maus, said Thursday that neither he nor the Broitzman family would comment.

Larson apparently has not hired an attorney, prosecutors said. Neither she nor her family responded to repeated attempts for comment. Her father, Michael Larson, told NBC’s “Today” show last week that the allegations against his daughter have been distorted by the media.

The abuse allegedly went on for several months in early 2008, until one teenage nursing assistant told a nursing home administrator about it during an exit interview, prosecutors allege. Follow-up interviews by state investigators and local police found that Broitzman and Larson “would talk and laugh about the incidents” with others, including young co-workers who sometimes witnessed incidents.

Prosecutors say Broitzman and Larson considered the abuse “something fun to do at work.” The two were confident they wouldn’t get caught because “residents did not have their minds,” a co-worker told investigators

Patient Falls Down, Nursing Home Fined

A Springfield nursing home has been fined by federal officials who say the facility failed to prevent an elderly patient strapped into a wheelchair from tumbling down a flight of stairs.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services imposed the $3,500 fine against the Capitol Care Center.

Capitol Care Center administrator Cynthia Schaaf says she did not know whether the facility would dispute the fine.

The fine stems from an incident on Sept. 24. Eighty-six-year-old Alfred “Stan” Catherwood was in a wheel chair when fell down eight stairs, breaking bones in his face and neck.

The state report says the 228-bed facility did not provide adequate supervision or maintain a hazard-free environment.

Home Care Versus Nursing Home Care

Most elders would prefer to stay in their own homes, where they know their neighbors and can associate memories with each piece of furniture and object around them, rather than move to an institution as they age.

Things that can make “aging in place” — the current term for staying in one’s own home as one ages — problematic are tasks such as cooking, cleaning, toileting, shopping, doing laundry, and driving, as well as falls, which for frail elders could initiate a downward spiral.

Support systems

• Help could come from family members, friends, or neighbors, who take care of the specific thing the elder has trouble with — such as doing laundry or shopping.
• Or, some elders turn to their religious community, as often there are volunteers willing to enable a senior to age in place.

• Home care agencies can be hired to provide the extra help needed for the senior to be able to age in place. In some cases, expenses will be reimbursed by Medicare, but seniors will need to check with the home care agency to find out about this possibility.

New technology can help seniors

• Electronic devices are now available to help monitor whether or not a senior has taken his or her medication — and if not, to remind the senior — or to determine whether a senior has opened the refrigerator.
• Emergency buttons can be worn around the neck and pressed if a health or other emergency should occur, in which case a person will speak to the senior through the device, assess the situation, and call for appropriate help.
• Cameras can be installed to track a senior’s movements, allowing adult children to monitor the senior and be assured that he or she is functioning well.
• New devices are constantly being invented, and they can make an enormous difference in a senior’s ability to age in place.

With all of these options available, aging in place is an increasingly viable choice. Seniors and their loved ones need to assess whether this alternative is indeed best, the risk being that the senior may become too socially isolated despite being in familiar neighborhoods and homes.

Antipsychotic Drugs Increase Risk of Death Among Elderly

The FDA has ordered the makers of older, “conventional” antipsychotics to add a “black box warning” to the drugs labels about the risk of early death in elderly dementia patients who take them. This is the strongest warning that can be placed on a medication without pulling it from the market.

This marks the first time that the FDA has used its new authority to mandate stronger warning labels on drugs. Before 2007, the FDA only had the power to request changes to warning labels.

The FDA concluded that conventional antipsychotics pose the same risks to elderly dementia patients as the newer, so-called “atypical” antipsychotics.

“The warning for both classes of drugs will say that clinical studies indicate that antipsychotic drugs of both types are associated with an increased risk of death when used in elderly patients treated for dementia-related psychosis,” the agency said.

In 2005, atypical antipsychotics received a black box warning after studies found that they increased the risks of heart attacks and pneumonia among elderly dementia patients, and that patients who were given the drugs died sooner than those who were not. In one such study cited by the FDA, 50 percent of elderly dementia patients died after ten weeks of treatment with the drugs, compared with only a 2.6 percent death rate among those taking a placebo.

Antipsychotics were designed for the treatment of schizophrenia, and are not approved for the treatment of dementia. Nonetheless, doctors are allowed by law to prescribe according to their own judgment, and antipsychotics are often used to sedate elderly dementia patients who develop psychosis-like symptoms, such as aggression, agitation, hallucinations or delusions.

Many patient advocates have accused many nursing home staff of shortening patients’ lives by giving them drugs that are only designed to sedate, rather than treat them

First sign of nursing home abuse.

Bedsores and bruises are often the first signs of nursing home neglect. If you notice any of these signs on a loved one that is living in a nursing home, please ask questions to ensure your loved one is safe, and being properly cared for.