Managing heat and humidity in the summer is a priority for everyone; for older adult home healthcare patients, it’s a lifesaving necessity.
Every summer, healthinaging.org reports, nearly 200 Americans die of health problems caused by high heat and humidity; most are age 50 or older. Hot weather is more likely to cause health problems for older adults, the authors explain, for a variety of reasons, including:
When researchers at the Future of Nursing Campaign for Action discovered large gaps between what academia thought training nurses needed and what would actually be expected of those nurses in their first nursing positions, one issue had to do with language. At Action Products, we take great pride in our ongoing role in working with nurses, we were fascinated by the National Institute of Aging’s tutorial on effective communication with elder patients.
From a general point of view, the authors explain, what was once called "bedside manner" is becoming the subject of many empirical studies, the results of which point to the fact that effective communication with patients:
“The increased proportion of older adults in the population need not present major problems,” authors Bennett and Flaherty-Robb assure readers of the Online Journal of issues in Nursing (OJIN) There’s a big IF at the end of that sentence, however: “IF we can provide appropriate resources.” No easy task, that, with the fastest growing group in the U.S. consisting of the “oldest old” - those aged 85 years or more. At Action Products, we take great pride in our ongoing role in geriatric nursing products.
Read MoreAt Action Products, where we take great pride in our ongoing role in geriatric nursing products, we are devoting this blog series to geriatric home healthcare.
Geriatric home health care, designed to help older adults live independently for as long as possible, even with an illness or injury, may include any or all of the following:
AORN Guidelines for Patient Positioning Reminders:
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