Orientation of the nurse for home care of the patient with Alzheimer's

Orientación de la enfermera para el cuidado en el hogar del paciente con alzheimer

In recent years we see how Alzheimer's disease is becoming relevant in terms of the number of deaths it refers to, since it is a degenerative, progressive and highly incapacitating disease that inevitably ends in death. As this is a disease of long evolution that is diminishing in people both their physical and cognitive abilities, the patient will be increasingly dependent on the care of their relatives; this is how the figure of the main caregiver appears. It was attended by eleven families from different areas of Bogotá and belonging to the strata between 2 and 4, who have a member with this problem in their home, in order to detect concepts, knowledge and beliefs they had in relation to this pathology and in this way implement an effective strategy for guidance in the care of this group of patients using a quasi-experimental type of quantitative study and Mc Nemar's statistical test for the validation of the hypothesis. A pretest was structured to identify the deficit of knowledge in the areas of: environment, recreation, feelings, sexuality, nutrition and hygiene management, ulcers, cures and incontinence; based on the information obtained, three personalized educational sessions were conducted, looking for families linked to the study to have an understanding of the changes that occur during the course of the disease and, in this way, understand the importance of comprehensive care that requires this type of patients at home. Subsequently, the posttest was applied where it was observed that the level of knowledge acquired by the families allowed the research purpose to be fulfilled, which consisted of guiding the family to identify the integral care in the home that a patient with a medical condition should have. Alzheimer, in order to create an atmosphere of coexistence where there is quality of life in the family environment.

Adams Víctor. R. Manual de Principios de Neurología. 6' ed. Bogotá: Mc Graw Hill; 411.

Arboleda H, Arboleda G H, Yunis J J, Pardo R, Gómez C.M. Benavides J. Grupo de trabajo interdisciplinario en Demencia, Unidad de Neurología- Instituto de Genética, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Asociación Nacional de Enfermeras Seccional Cundinamarca 266/ 1996 Enero 25. Capitulo V. Art. 13. pg. 13

Castañeda M, Villegas L CA, Arias R LF, Vieco B, Sepúlveda Falla Da, Bedoya G, Lopera F. Medellín Grupo de Neurociencias de Antioquia. Reunión Latinoamericana de Alzheimer 3a: 28-31, Cuba mar 2000. Lluch R, Cuesta, Marages. El cuidador principal en la enfermedad de Alzheimer. Mislata, Valencia: A D A M, 2001. En www.valencia.arg. Montañes P, Matallana D, Cano C, Plata S, García R, Gil E

Clínica de Memoria, Epidemiología clínica y Bioestadística. Bogotá. Universidad Javeriana Departamento de Psicología.

Orozco M, Arango G, Pardo R, Grupo de trabajo interdisciplinario de demencia,

Unidad de Neurología. Instituto de Genética, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.