Dementia, personhood, and nursing: learning from a nursing situation.
Appreciation of the personhood of people with dementia calls for care that looks beyond the disease to the person within. In this column the author discusses the concept of personhood for people with dementia and presents a method of teaching person-centered care developed within the theoretical framework of nursing as caring. The study of an aesthetic expression of a nursing situation, written by a nurse who cares for people with Alzheimer's disease in a nursing home, is presented to assist nurses to learn to see beyond the disease to the person and to develop relationships that nurture personhood.
Touhy
Theris A
TA
Undergraduate Program, Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.
D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001364:Awareness; D003142:Communication; D003704:Dementia / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology*; D004645:Empathy; D006694:Holistic Health; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009742:Nursing Theory; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D028723:Personhood; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing