Social Psychiatry, Vol. 47 No. 3, 2019.
Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.24869/spsih.2019.394
Nurses’ Palliative Approach to People with Dementia
Senka Repovečki
; University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, Zagreb; University of Applied Health Sciences, Zagreb
Marija Džinić
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Philosophy of the Society of Jesus, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Palliative care in people with dementia is not only based on diagnosis but on achieving the best possible quality of life for the affected person and their loved ones. Dementia is a chronic progressive disease that involves complex needs, while considering the range of complications that often develop afterwards. Patients at advanced stages can live for years, while some never experience the easily recognizable terminal stage of the disease. Apart from family members and close friends, nurses play a key role in treating affected patients. Nurses are one of the elemental factors in the new situation, both for the person with dementia and for affected family members. The main goal of the nurse’s palliative approach, therefore, is to correlate with the diseased person and their family. Although there is no effective treatment for cerebral pathology, it is certainly possible to aid the affected person. First and foremost, it is about adapting and coping with stress. Palliative care is focused on addressing physical symptoms, the most common of which is physical pain and the satisfaction of basic physiological needs, but its secondary role should not be neglected. As the disease progresses, dementia also significantly affects communication, so clear and applicable communication is of major importance to the palliative approach. For this reason, the authors place emphasis on the interaction between the nurse and the person diagnosed with dementia, which is realized through palliative care in order to improve the quality of their lives.
Keywords
Pain; Dementia; Communication; Nurse; Palliative Approach
Hrčak ID:
232523
URI
Publication date:
12.11.2019.
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