Taking care of an elderly loved one is a huge task and you need to get professional opinion for doing it right. In this regard, home nursing assessment comes handy. The personnel who are performing this assessment should be trained in geriatric healthcare and have a demonstrated experience in this area. It proves helpful in reducing the hospital visits of elderly, gives them independence and improves their quality of life. An accurate nursing assessment gives you information to get the most appropriate healthcare as per their age.
This type of assessment is designed to gauge the full range of healthcare options and how the patient will respond to them. As a skilled nurse in geriatric assessment, he/she should know the physiologic changes of elderly. Also, they need to know the difference between health problems caused by ailments and aging-related health deterioration. In this blog post, we have discussed essential elements of a home nursing assessment:
Getting Health History
Before starting the physical check-up, the nursing professional needs to interview the patient and his/her family members for obtaining health and medical history. This information will help him/her to focus on areas of concern while performing physical examination. Health history should comprise of past and immediate health problems. Also, it includes a list of prescription and over-the-counter medications of the patients with their frequency and doses.
Checking for Integumentary Changes
Some age-related changes such as wrinkled skin and grey hair are easy to identify. However, these changes are not most of the time related to age, rather they can be a result of environmental factors and lifestyle.
Skin Assessment
Loss of turgor and elasticity in skin cause wrinkles. Human skin gradually loses its density and gets thin which makes it more prone to tearing and bruising. During the home nursing assessment, inspecting skin for moles and lesions is necessary. Nursing professional should ask the patient if any of his/her moles changes its size or colour recently. Excessive exposure to skin can increase the risk of skin cancer and patient should be asked about the duration of skin exposure to sun each day.
Hair Assessment
With the passage of age, our body tends to make less melanin which is a contributing factor in greying of hair. Additionally, volume and thickness of hair also decrease. Many elderly people suffer from a substantial loss of hair. Older men due to genetics and lifestyle choices generate tendency of baldness.
Nail Assessment
Naturally, nails’ surfaces occur in curve or flat and they have no link with age. While performing the assessment, nurse should check the colour, cleanliness, length of the nails and any abnormalities. Clubbing of nails is a symptom of pulmonary or cardiac problem, transverse groves indicate either arterial insufficiency, peripheral vascular problem, or diabetes. Brown or yellow nails are a symptom of a fungal infection.
Head, Neck and Face Assessment
The main objective of the skull is to provide protection to the brain and nervous system from sustaining injury. During home nursing assessment, nurse has to check the general shape and size of the head and if its proportional to overall body of the patient.
The head is connected to spinal cord through seven vertebrae. The neck is naturally designed to offer maximum movement to the head. Muscle weakness or arthritis can lead to limited range of motion (ROM). It can cause discomfort and pain in elderly people. Nursing professional should assess for ROM and should ask the patient if he/she is experiencing any dizziness or pain. These are the symptoms of health issues such as stroke, Parkinson’s disease or fractured/injured vertebrae.
Musculoskeletal System Assessment
Nursing assessment for elderly should investigate any abnormalities while assessing the healthcare options. This includes loss of balance, walking issues, postural weaknesses, or difficulty to stand. Muscle groups should be assessed for involuntary movements, tremors or atrophy. Elderly people can have ROM due to inflamed joints.
We, at eShifa, are here to help you in home nursing assessment. Just book an appointment on phone and our experts will visit your home at your convenience.