Category: Assessment
Articles pertaining to nursing assessment often pertaining to terminally ill patients and recognizing key areas to prevent avoidable distress.
Terminal Restlessness in the Completely Nonverbal Patient
Terminal restlessness is a common phenomenon that occurs in the final stages of life. It is characterized by agitation, confusion, and distress. It can be challenging to recognize and manage, especially in patients who cannot communicate verbally. This article aims to share insights and tips from a hospice worker who learned how terminal restlessness can manifest differently in nonverbal patients and how to cope.
Assessing pain in non-verbal patients
Pain is a subjective sensation that can affect a person’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. While pain can be measured objectively by using vital signs such as temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and respiration count, these indicators may not reflect the true intensity of pain that a person is experiencing. This is especially true for non-verbal patients, who cannot communicate their pain verbally. Non-verbal patients may include those with advanced dementia, terminal illness, or other conditions that impair their speech. In this article, I will discuss the importance of assessing pain in non-verbal patients, the tools and methods that can be used to do so, and the benefits of providing adequate pain relief for these patients.
Early detection of COVID-19 in the elderly
These are my experiences as a registered nurse caring for geriatric patients in a long-term & rehab care setting where I was the house supervisor responsible for up to 151 residents along with managing the second shift healthcare staff.
By now, you’ve probably had your temperature checked ad nauseam as you visit different locations. Yet, is checking the temperature of your elderly loved ones a good way to know if they may have COVID-19? Are you aware that according to Vital Signs in Older Patients: Age-Related Changes, “older patients are less able to mount a fever response.” Most of my geriatric patients did not have a fever when they contracted COVID-19, and most remained afebrile (without fever) through their stay in the COVID unit.
What’s a more reliable sign of potential COVID-19 infection in the elderly?
INFJ and being a hospice nurse
As an INFJ, I’m almost constantly introspective. Today, I was helping with an emergency where one of our wonderful on-call nurses was in a car accident. During my visit with a patient I admitted yesterday who is transitioning towards actively dying, I was in bewilderment in my mind about how comfortable and peacefully patient I am when I’m around the terminally ill and their family.