Caring for the Older Person

Introduction: reason for the book.

1 Preliminary considerations and symbols.

2 Care for the older person requiring assistance with personal cleansing.

Procedure One: Making or changing the older person’s bed with the person still in bed.

Procedure Two: Assisting the older person requiring a wash in bed or chair, including care of hands and feet.

Procedure Three: Assisting the older person to wash in the bath or shower, including care of hands and feet.

Procedure Four: Assisting the bed-bound older person to wash his or her hair.

Procedure Five: Assisting the older person with cleansing of the mouth, including care of dentures.

Procedure Six: Assisting the older person requiring eye care.

3 Care for the older person requiring assistance with movement (Vicky MacArthur RGN, BSc (hons), MSc, PGDip HPE).

Procedure Seven: Assisting the older person to move up the bed.

Procedure Eight: Assisting the older person to move from a lying to a sitting position.

Procedure Nine: Assisting the older person with a lateral transfer while they are in a lying position.

Procedure Ten: Assisting the older person to sit back in the chair.

Procedure Eleven: Assisting the older person from a sitting to a standing position.

Procedure Twelve: Assisting the older person to walk.

4 Care for the older person requiring assistance to maintain nutrition and fluid intake.

Procedure Thirteen: Assisting the older person to eat and drink.

Procedure Fourteen: Nasogastric tube insertion and position checking.

Procedure Fifteen: Assisting the older person with nutrition and fluid intake via a nasogastric tube.

Procedure Sixteen: Care of percutaneous endoscopically guided gastrostomy (PEG) tube site until stoma well established (1–14 days).

Procedure Seventeen: Care of percutaneous endoscopically guided gastrostomy (PEG) tube site when stoma well established.

Procedure Eighteen: Assisting the older person with nutrition and fluid intake via a percutaneous endoscopically guided gastrostomy (PEG) tube.

5 Care for the older person requiring assistance with toilet needs.

Procedure Nineteen: Assisting the older person to use toilet, commode or bedpan.

Procedure Twenty: Assisting the older person requiring bowel care: administration of suppositories.

Procedure Twenty-one: Assisting the older person requiring bowel care: administration of an evacuant enema.

Procedure Twenty-two: Obtaining a specimen of faeces for observation, assessment and analysis.

Procedure Twenty-three: Obtaining a specimen of urine for observation, assessment and analysis.

Procedure Twenty-four: Assisting the older person with catheter care.

Procedure Twenty-five: Assisting the older person to empty a catheter bag.

Procedure Twenty-six: Obtaining a catheter specimen of urine for observation, assessment and analysis.

6 Care for the older person requiring observation and monitoring.

Procedure Twenty-seven: Measuring and recording temperature.

Procedure Twenty-eight: Measuring and recording temperature using a tympanic thermometer.

Procedure Twenty-nine: Measuring and recording blood pressure.

Procedure Thirty: Measuring and recording pulse.

Procedure Thirty-one: Measuring and recording respiratory rate.

7 Care for the older person at the end of his or her life.

Procedure Thirty-two: Caring for the body of the older person following death.

References and further reading.

Index.