Abstract

Dementia is associated with deterioration in memory and cognition which can be severe enough to diminish a person's capacity to perform everyday activities including eating. Maintaining sufficient nutritional intake for dementia patients requires skilled knowledgeable caregivers. The focus of this project was to develop an evidence-based feeding protocol to assist caregivers in providing optimal nutrient intake of dementia patients, to evaluate changes in staff knowledge, and to determine the impact on dementia patients' meal intake percentage and weights through chart review. Dementia typically causes a decline in both cognitive and physical abilities leading to functionality and self-care limitations. Dorothea Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory provides a framework for defining the role of the nurse in identifying self-care deficits and satisfying the patients' self-care needs through the interactions of nurses, caregivers, and clients. Post intervention implementation, the results indicated there was no statistically significant relationship between the awareness of the feeding protocol and patients' weight gain or maintenance. A significant relationship between awareness of the feeding protocol and patients' percentage of meal consumption was indicated by the increase in mean percentage of patient meal consumption of 9.10% following the caregivers' participation in the education program.

Author Details

Elizabeth Marks Cortright, DNP, MBA, RN-BC, CNE

Sigma Membership

Delta Mu

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quasi-Experimental Study, Other

Research Approach

Translational Research/Evidence-based Practice

Keywords:

Dementia Care, Weight Loss, Caregiver Feeding Education

Advisor

Unknown

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Touro University

Degree Year

2018

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

Peer-review: Single Blind

Acquisition

Self-submission

Date of Issue

2018-07-03

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