Geriatric Treatment Essay

Geriatric nursing is a comprehensive medical practice relating to the administration of care to elderly persons. Older adults are at a higher risk of succumbing to diseases such as cancer and therefore require close monitoring to prevent the occurrence of medical complications. Nurses, therefore, focus primarily on preventive care as well as giving attention to bedridden patients and those with mental impairments. A geriatric nurse mainly works in nursing facilities where they perform duties such as rehabilitation, administering treatment, and assisting patients to manage their pain. Caring for the elderly gives nurses feelings of gratification and incentive, but may also be a challenging discipline. It, therefore, needs a person who is readily understanding and at the same time patient, to be able to handle frustrating situations accordingly. Before entering this field of work, it is essential that one performs a personality test to determine their capabilities.

The health of aging adults is affected by various factors such as chronic stress which contributes to continued lack of sleep. Poor sleep consequently contributes to the deterioration of health and if not looked at could even lead to the death of patients. Research, therefore, is required to come up with remedies to poor sleeping habits among the elderly patients. The study will entail collection of data and transforming it into information, useful knowledge and finally wisdom to be used in decision making. The data collection methods most appropriate for this exploration would include interviews, making observations and focus group deliberations. The data collected may not be useful in decision making and will, therefore, require being transformed into information through assessments and analyzing the critical aspects of the records. The relevant information gathered can then be converted into useful knowledge with which wisdom is gained. The understanding gained on the particular topic comes in handy in the decision-making process. The process of research is considered as a series of events as it involves manipulating data and converting it into meaningful information, knowledge, and wisdom. The primary aim of this paper is to carefully study the poor sleeping habits of elderly persons by developing a research question with which the problem can be investigated and resolved.

How does a non-pharmacological approach improve sleeping habits and health of elderly patients?

The research question is triggered by frequent cases of poor sleeping patterns among older patients in nursing homes. Aged persons are required to rest occasionally by having enough sleep. It is however not the case, and the lack of sleep negatively affects the patients' health. Lack of sleep is primarily caused by chronic stress, nigh time worry among other factors. Qualities of scanty sleeping behaviors include difficulty in falling asleep, disrupted sleeping spells and tiredness when one wakes up.

The information to be gathered by this research will include the common causes of insomnia, their effects, and remedies as well as the effectiveness of non-pharmacological methods in ensuring proper and quality sleeping habits are restored among patients. The study will also incorporate individual concerns of each patient experiencing sleep troubles, to efficiently assist every patient. The non-pharmacological methods being studies include mental and behavioral therapies as well as lifestyle interventions such as physical exercise, social support and sleep management skills.

Data is collected by first interviewing the patients to come up with reasons as to why they were unable to sleep and then supplementing those raw facts with records kept from observations and further research from various databases. The other part of the study is to come up with different non-medicinal approaches and determining their effectiveness over the use of drugs. The data collected is usually scribbled and will, therefore, require arranging and analysis to make sense and consequently become useful.

To ensure the adequate transformation of data into expedient information, I will only collect useful and accurate data relating to the research question. The data collected must be instrumental in making decisions on the approaches to be used in dealing with sleep problems. Information is generated once all the data has been assessed, analyzed and changed into a meaningful format. The best databases most helpful for this research are the PubMed and EBSCO, but the most appropriate is the former as it comprises numerous referencing materials for biomedical literature from MEDLINE. The PubMed database was most beneficial in the identification of literature reviews and investigation studies relating to the clinical question.

The best way to go about finding articles on the research topic would be to first look for the most appropriate search engine concerned with geriatric nursing. In this case, the database to be used is the PubMed from which the articles will be sourced. To obtain relevant materials on the research question, I will search for items relating to the care of the elderly and most specifically, measures of ensuring good quality sleep.Geriatric articles will assist physicians to fully understand the needs of the patients and gain insights on non- pharmacological methods and their usefulness in improving the health of the older adults with sleeping problems.

Information from articles can be extracted in some ways including skimming which entails scanning the item especially if it is long. Another method is reading the abstract, especially the findings and inferences section to determine the critical points of the entire topic discussed. In the case of short articles, one may read the whole text so as not to miss on any vital information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, informatics is essential in gaining wisdom as it involves the processing of knowledge in all academic disciplines. Information obtained such as the use of behavioral therapy and social support sessions as a remedy to sleeplessness among patients ought to be transformed into valuable knowledge.To do this, I will select the most relevant information that answers the research questions efficiently, organize it and present it in a logical structure. This question will then be converted into wisdom that will be utilized in problem-solving. Knowledge is created when the known facts of non - therapeutic approaches are noted down, discussed among the health practitioners and finally put to use. Wisdom in most cases is gained from experience.

References

Gehrman, P., Gooneratne, N. S., Brewster, G. S., Richards, K. C., & Karlawish, J. (2018). Influence of Alzheimer sickness patients' slumber conflicts on their caregivers. Geriatric Tending, 39(1), 60-65.

McCabe, D. E. (2018). Integrating behavioral health care for older adults: Start with nurses.

Thakral, M., Shi, L., Foust, J. B., Patel, K. V., Shmerling, R. H., Bean, J. F., & Leveille, S. G. (2018). Persistence of pain eminence in community-dwelling elder adults with long-lasting non-cancer agony. Geriatric Nursing.