Nursing care about patients with dementia at a retirement home and at a home with a special regime in view of a general nurse

Higher age is connected to many diseases and one of the serious problems which affects seniors worldwide has become dementia. It is estimated that these times there is about 38 million of people suffering dementia worldwide and according to forecasts the amount will rise three times by year 2050. The disease affects mostly seniors older than 65 years. The situation in the Czech Republic is similar. I work at a retirement home and I encounter these problems every day. It was the reason why I chose this issue as a theme for my bachelor thesis. The name of the bachelor thesis is Nursing care about patients with dementia at a retirement home and at a home with a special regime in view of a general nurse. The theoretical part is aimed at general characteristics of a retirement home, a home with a special regime and at a role of a general nurse in these social residential places. Additionally, it describes dementia, its partition and stages. Within the next part, there is described nursing care of these patients. At the end of the theoretical part I mentioned the Czech Alzheimer Society. In our state it has an irreplaceable place in offering help to people suffering Alzheimer disease and also to those who take care about them. Within the practical part I did a quantitative research by using anonymous questionnaire. The results were analysed and used for graph processing. I established four aims together with four hypothesises. The first aim was to discover which positive and negative factors have the particular centres in providing a nursery care according to general nurses. In order to fulfil the aim, the hypothesis was established: In the homes with a special regime, there is provided nursery care with more respect for the specific needs of the patients with dementia. This hypothesis was confirmed by the research. The second aim of the thesis was to discover motivation of the nurses for working with seniors with dementia. The specified hypothesis was that a common motivation is a social conscience and the need to help old people. This hypothesis was also proven. The third aim was to discover whether the retirement homes and the homes with a special regime have compiled standards of nursery care for patients with dementia and whether the homes work in accordance with these standards. The specified hypothesis was that in contrast to the homes with a special regime, the retirement homes do not have established the standards of nursery care for patients with dementia. Opposite to my hypothesis, 64% of nurses working in classic retirement homes stated that the standards are established. I have to state that this hypothesis was refuted. To find out whether the general nurses are being informed with new knowledge in the area of nursery care for patients with dementia and whether this care in the retirement homes differs from care in the homes with special regimes was the fourth aim of the thesis. The specified hypothesis was that the nurses in the both types of the homes arrange their life-long education in the area of care for the patients with dementia predominantly by themselves and not through their employers. This hypothesis was not proven. The reason for choosing this particular topic for the bachelor thesis was to find out whether a permanent coexistence among patients with dementia and their mates in the classic retirement homes is convenient. This aim was fulfilled thanks to the results obtained by surveying the opinions of the nurses working at social centres given at this research. The results of the bachelor thesis will be used and realized practically at The Retirement Home in Sušice, in August 2013, when the capacity of the beds will be increased by 14 units obtaining a special regime status