Nursing Gerontology

Instructions

Assessing and Planning Care for an Elderly Person

In order to gain an insight into the world of elder adults, it is important to understand how they view themselves and the values they hold. Additionally it is important to assess and determine his/her needs and establish appropriate interventions for this individual.

By the due date assigned, choose an older adult to interview. This cannot be a patient in your clinical setting. You can use a friend, family member, or co-worker. The older adult should be 65 years or older. Use the format provided to record the responses. A list of questions is available for you to start with. Include 2–3 questions of your own to get a complete picture of the older adult. Summarize your findings and also contrast the responses with findings in your readings and other current literature.

Download a

patient questionnaire

. This form should be used as an example.

After gaining permission, conduct a physical and mental functional assessment of the older adult you have chosen. Review your readings for the process of functional assessment.

Make use of the tools discussed this week to complete a comprehensive assessment of your patient. Search the Internet for resources on these tools.

1. Tinetti Balance and Gait Evaluation
2. Katz Index of Activities of Daily Living
3. Assessment of Home Safety
4. The Barthel Index

Make sure the older adult is clearly identified on the tools. Do not include their name, but do include professional or other designation, and age. Your name should also be identified on the tool. (This should be a part of your Appendix.)

Paper should be 5–6 pages, not including the questionnaire or tools used. These should be attached as an Appendix. Remember to use headings to identify the different sections in your paper.

On a separate references page, cite all sources using APA format.

NSG4067 Gerontological Nursing

Patient Questionnaire

INTERVIEW OF CHOSEN ELDER ADULT

Name: ________________________________ Age: ________________

Brief Introduction (Background information):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. Philosophy on living a long life

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Thoughts about when a person is considered “too old”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____

3. Opinion on the status and treatment of older adults

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Beliefs about health and illness

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Health promotion activities he or she participates in

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Something special that helped the person live so long

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7. Life span of other family members

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Special dietary traditions in patient’s culture attributed with aiding long life

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9. Any remedies/medications that have been handed down in family/group. If yes, describe. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. Patient’s description of current and past health status

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

11. The values that guided life so far

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Additional Questions

1. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Summary

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Contrast of client’s responses with findings in current literature

· ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

· ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
· ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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