Assessment - Older adult: Nursing

The assessment of older adults is focused on identifying their self care abilities and helping them achieve an optimal level of functioning.

In addition to completing a comprehensive physical examination, you'll assess their functional cognitive, environmental and social status.

All right, a functional assessment evaluates your patient's physical mobility and functional independence. Now, before assessing mobility, make sure your patient is wearing appropriate footwear, has their necessary assistive devices and that you're standing nearby to prevent falls, then assess your patient's physical mobility and gait by having them perform the timed up and go test or tug for short where you'll ask them to stand up from a seated position, walk 10 ft, then return to the chair and sit down during this time.

Note their ability to get up from the chair, their balance gait and speed. Then to assess their functional independence, use your facility's approved tool to evaluate their ability to perform basic activities of daily living or ADL S like bathing, dressing, feeding, and toileting.

Next, ask them about how they perform more complex tasks known as instrumental Ad Ls or I AD Ls like washing their clothes and shopping for groceries.

You can also ask them to demonstrate how to use their phone and how they organize their medications. During a cognitive assessment, you'll evaluate your patient's level of cognitive function.

Start by reviewing their electronic health record for medications or conditions that can impair cognition such as opioids, antidepressants or anticonvulsants or a history of traumatic brain injury.

Also assess general indicators of their mental status such as their grooming, hygiene and clarity of speech. You may also use your facility's approved instrument to further screen for attention and memory deficits like the mini mental state examination or MM SE which assesses orientation to time and location registration, recall attention calculation and language.

The mm SE totals 30 points and a score of less than 24 implies cognitive impairment to assess their mood and screen for depression.

Use a facility approved tool such as the geriatric depression scale or G DS perform an environmental assessment to evaluate the characteristics of your patient's living environment.

Begin by conducting a home visit to identify potential hazards in their home or neighborhood. Using a safety checklist, you can identify home hazards like loose rugs or carpets, clutter and slippery surfaces as well as neighborhood hazards like uneven sidewalks or dim street lights.

You'll also assess the community for availability of services such as public transportation and access to grocery stores and pharmacies.

Now, to conduct a social assessment to evaluate your patient's level of social resources, ask your patient about their relationships with family and friends determine if there are any family members living with them or if they live alone and how often do they talk to visit or are visited by other people?

They know, also determine if there's a family member or friend who can assist them in the event of illness or disability or if a home health aide would be needed.

Lastly, ask them if they receive social support from community groups or faith based organizations. All right.

As a quick recap, the assessment of older adults is focused on identifying their self care abilities and helping them achieve an optimal level of functioning.

In addition to completing a comprehensive physical examination, you'll assess their functional, cognitive, environmental and social status.