NR 601 Week 3 TD 1
Review the course library page list of available screening tools.
Choose two that are appropriate for primary care and discuss the
... [Show More] following:
• explain the purpose of the tool
• scoring guidelines
• how you apply the assessment in practice
*If you would like to present a screening tool that is not listed, contact your instructor for approval.
It is not uncommon for elderly patient’s to have inadequate nutritional intake (Elsawy & Higgins, 2011). It is so important for the elderly patient to consume a healthy, well-balanced diet in order to assist in keeping them healthy; patients who are malnourished are at a grater risk for experiencing more health complications and have a higher mortality and morbidity risk. Many factors can affect their nutritional status including medications, financial hardships, depression, chronic illnesses, social isolation, and disabilities (Kennedy-Malone, Fletcher, & Plank, 2014). Kennedy-Malone, Fletcher, & Plank (2014), suggest having patients take the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) as a way of monitoring their risk for malnutrition. The MNA is filled out by the patient and consists of 6 questions (Kennedy-Malone, Fletcher, & Plank, 2014). The scoring guidelines for the MNA are as follows: 0 to 7 points indicates the patient is malnourished, 8 to 11 points indicates the patient is at risk for malnutrition, and 12 to 14 points indicates the patient’s nutritional status is normal (MNA, n.d.). In my practice, I would have the patients fill this form out during their first appointment and then every 3 months so that we could continue monitoring them. I have seen this done in many practices and it works well.
Affective disorders and cognitive disorders become more common as one ages, especially delirium, dementia, and depression (Kennedy-Malone, Fletcher, & Plank, 2014). Depression is under diagnosed, especially in older patients (Kennedy-Malone, Fletcher, & Plank, 2014). There are a number of screening tools that providers can use in the office setting to screen for depression, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) and the Geriatric Depression Scale: Short Form (GDS:SF) (Kennedy-Malone, Fletcher, & Plank, 2014). My clinical site last session and my clinical site this session [Show Less]