Life of Dementia Patients Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Life of Dementia Patients - Research Proposal Example In the later stages of dementia, patients normally, exhibit signs of time disorientation in the sense that they can say the exact time or even differentiate between day or night. Secondly, at the later stages, dementia patients cannot even be able to tell their exact location, and/ or even identify people they used to know. Thirdly, dementia patients also tend to exhibit a loss of control in their own behaviors as well as emotions. Lastly, dementia patients tend to suffer from impaired problem-solving skills meaning that they cannot also be able to reason properly because of lack of sound mind. Repper and Perkins (2003) noted that for a particular case to be classified as dementia, medical practitioners recommend that the symptoms have to be persistent for a period of more than six months. According to the writings by Repper and Perkins (2003), they stated that persons who have suffered from previous physical impairments are prone to dementia more so those who had a brain injury. Bartlett and O’Connor (2007) on their part stated that most dementia patients are persons above the age of sixty-five i.e. the geriatric population but there have been reported cases of dementia occurring before the age of sixty-five. Because of the unique nature of the dementia symptoms, the nursing requirements for catering for these patients tend to be unique because it is not focused towards ensuring the patients regain their full health back but rather it is focused on enabling the patients to cope with the condition, whilst feel only an insignificant pain or inconveniences caused by the condition. Therefore, it is particularly important to investigate the roles that nurses play in ensuring that dementia patients have a better quality of life despite their condition. The extent, nature, or standard of the nursing care given to dementia patients determines the quality of life the patients have until their death occurs. In this regard, Baldwin (2008) lamented on the fact that because of the rare incidences of dementia cases, there has been a little focus on the role of nurses in providing care to dementia patients.