Pre-Hospital Elder Life Program Eportfolio Post

          To my knowledge currently, delirium is an acute process that frequently affects the elder population in the hospital setting. Delirium is acute confusion, which is often misunderstood as dementia. Ways to prevent delirium include assessing patient mental status at least once per shift, re-orienting patients to their room, preventing infections such as UTIs, reorienting patients to person, place, and time, and providing mind stimulating tools such as crossword puzzles or books for the patient to read. It is important to be able to recognize delirium in patients because it can impair healing in patients.

            I have previously experienced caring for a patient who is experiencing delirium. This way eye opening for me because my patient didn’t have dementia, but it presents very similarly. One major difference I noticed is that my patient had episodes where they were more alert and oriented, and some where they were very confused. In dementia, it’s more chronic and less of a drastic shift in mental status. 

            The learning goals I have for this volunteer experience are to further establish my therapeutic communication techniques with patients and to learn more about the public health field/public health nursing. I have career interests in both mental health and primary care, potentially as a nurse practitioner. Both of these goals will help me further explore my fields of interest and build skills to succeed in them. Therapeutic communication skills will help me connect with my patients and gain their trust and learning about public health nursing may help me provide better resources to my patients. 

One thing about this volunteer program that makes me nervous is being dismissed by the other healthcare staff or my patients. Helping people is really important to me and I feel that public health initiatives such as the HELP program and their impact is very overlooked in the in-patient setting. I’m also very curious about the HELP program because I have seen them at Maine Medical Center while taking care of my patients as a CNA. I want to learn more about the different services they can provide patients with so I can be helpful in both the CNA and HELP program role. 

            Other programs I know of for the aging population in Maine is the Westbrook Housing Program and the Visiting Angels program. I know that Westbrook housing has housing for lower socioeconomic members of the aging population. It also has programs where you can volunteer to bring people to do their errands/to the grocery store. Visiting Angels also has a program like this where you are assigned to a member of the aging population to spend time with them and help them with needs around the house or errands outside of the house.