title: Nursing and medical care of primary dementia patients in a community hospital setting.
abstract: A group of 480 hospital discharges systematically drawn from elderly, community hospital discharges were examined in order to describe the hospitalization experiences of individuals with admitting or coexisting diagnoses of primary dementia. Demented patients (7.1% of the sample) were most likely to be among the oldest hospitalized elders. The most frequently recorded patient problem was "alteration in thought processes." Most nursing interventions emphasized safety precautions, often to the exclusion of psychosocial intervention to maximize and support the patient's level of cognitive functioning. Over one fourth of the demented patients had written "no code" prescriptions. Approximately 44% of the elders in the dementia subsample had prescriptions for psychotropic medications.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Travis
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009731:Nursing Audit; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000592:standards; D015995:Prevalence; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs