Week 3 – Drop box Assignment Case study Transcultural Approach to Nursing Care

Sample Answer

Transcultural Approach to Nursing Care

Patients with dementia require special attention when delivering nursing care due to their altered cognition. These patients have cognitive deficits like memory loss, communication, and language impairments, inability to recognize objects and impaired executive function.

Some patients can provide their history but cannot make informed healthcare decisions as they lack decision-making capacity. This means that they are limited in their ability to understand information about their health, weigh options and their consequences, reason through their choices, and communicate their decision.

The condition is common in older adults 65 years and older. The purpose of this paper is to describe a communication, space, and nursing approach and modify patient education for patients with dementia.

Communication Approach

When communicating with a patient with dementia, the nurse needs to speak clearly and calmly. The nurse should use short, simple sentences since most patients have impaired recent memory. Since most patients are older adults, the nurse should be patient and respect them by addressing the patient with their names or titles.

Besides, the nurse should communicate with the patient in a conversational way instead of asking consecutive questions, which may be tiring and intimidating for the patient (Collins et al., 2022). If the dementia patient gets easily tired, the nurse should employ the approach of having short, regular conversations with the patient. Furthermore, the nurse should avoid speaking sharply or raising the voice.

Space Approach

Respecting personal boundaries, privacy, and personal space is essential in preserving the dignity of patients with dementia. The nurse can respect a patient’s personal space by knocking on the door or table to get the patient’s attention and signal one’s approach. The nurse can apply the approach of pausing at 6 feet, which is by pausing at the boundary between public and personal space.

Besides, the nurse should acknowledge a patient’s ownership of personal space and obtain permission to enter or approach (van der Geugten & Goossensen, 2020). The nurse should approach the patient from the front, come in within 45 degrees of the center, move slowly, one step a second, and stand tall.

Nursing Approach

Dementia patients are often anxious and agitated when they learn of their profound cognitive losses and rapidly diminishing abilities to carry out activities independently. Thus, a nursing approach can be implemented to reduce anxiety and agitation.

The nurse can provide the patient with constant emotional support that reinforces a positive self-image (Kwame & Petrucka, 2021). The nurse should ensure the patient’s environment is uncluttered, familiar, and noise-free to minimize agitation.

Excitement and confusion can be upsetting and may precipitate a combative, agitated state known as a catastrophic reaction.

Patient Education Modification

The nurse should modify the patient education approach for dementia patients, given that they have cognitive deficits. One of the modifications is breaking down the health education content into smaller chunks to make it more manageable for the patient to understand (Kwame & Petrucka, 2021).

If the patient does not understand what the nurse educator is saying, even after repeating it, the nurse should try explaining the information in a slightly different way. In addition, when asking the patient questions related to the educational content, the nurse should avoid asking too many questions or complicated questions.

This is because patients with dementia often become frustrated or withdrawn if one does not know the answer, which worsens their anxiety and agitation (Wollney et al., 2024). Lastly, the nurse should stick to one topic at a time and preferably address one topic per session to ensure the patient understands and avoids confusion and frustration.

Conclusion

Patients with dementia suffer from cognitive deficits, which impair their communication and decision-making abilities. Thus, nurses require a unique approach when communicating with patients, giving personal space, providing nursing care, and patient education.

The nurse should use clear, easy-to-understand sentences to convey messages for effective communication. The nursing approach should include providing constant emotional support to alleviate anxiety and agitation in dementia patients. Patient education content should be broken down, topics delivered one session at a time, and the nurse should be patient during patient education.

References

• Collins, R., Hunt, A., Quinn, C., Martyr, A., Pentecost, C., & Clare, L. (2022). Methods and approaches for enhancing communication with people with moderate-to-severe dementia that can facilitate their inclusion in research and service evaluation Findings from the IDEAL program. Dementia (London, England), 21(4), 1135–1153. https //doi.org/10.1177/14713012211069449
  
• Kwame, A., & Petrucka, P. M. (2021). A literature-based study of patient-centered care and communication in nurse-patient interactions Barriers, facilitators, and the way forward. BMC Nursing, 20(1). https //doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00684-2
  
• van der Geugten, W., & Goossensen, A. (2020). Dignifying and undignifying aspects of care for people with dementia a narrative review. Scandinavian Journal Of Caring Sciences, 34(4), 818–838. https //doi.org/10.1111/scs.12791
  
• Wollney, E. N., Bylund, C. L., Bedenfield, N., Parker, N. D., Rosselli, M., Curiel Cid, R. E., Kitaigorodsky, M., & Armstrong, M. J. (2024). Persons living with dementia and caregivers’ communication preferences for receiving a dementia diagnosis. PEC Innovation, p. 4, 100253. https //doi.org/10.1016/j.pecinn.2024.100253