Abstract

There is currently no systemic or evidence-based process in place for nurses to follow on assessing inpatient geriatric psychiatric patients when they experience agitation and aggression. There have been growing concerns about the nonexistence use of proper assessment tools on inpatients’ geriatric psychiatric units. This concern has brought attention to the realism that no process currently exists to direct nurses to perform assessments and determine what interventions, other than psychotropics, can be attempted before administering the sedating medications. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the world’s population aged 60 years and older, is anticipated to total 2 billion, up from 900 million in 2015. With old age, comes a lot of complications. An upsurge in the elderly population means a direct increase in age-related diseases such as dementia, which is a major neurocognitive disorder. These disorders can be challenging to treat. The geriatric population will develop psychological symptoms such as agitation and aggression. It is estimated that 8%-44% of geriatric patients would experience agitation and aggression during their inpatient stay in an acute psychiatric unit. Not all symptoms of agitation and aggression are related to neurocognitive disorders or dementia. However, finding the appropriate cause may result in a resolution of the behaviors. Available evidence indicates that adherence to using assessment tools for identifying the possible cause of the behaviors has decreased the use of psychotropic medications.

Kimberly Bright

Author Details

Dr. Kimberly Bright, DNP, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Lead Author Affiliation

Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Type

DNP Capstone Project

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Quality Improvement

Research Approach

Qualitative Research

Keywords:

Agitation and Aggression, Inpatient Geriatric Psychiatric Units, Psychotropic Medications

Advisor

McDaniel, G.

Degree

DNP

Degree Grantor

Samford University

Degree Year

2020

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

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2020-07-17

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