Theoretical Foundations Ageing and old age are natural parts of every individual during their lives. Most of the population wants to live an active life of the best quality possible. Nutrition is a factor that influences healthy aging most significantly. Adequate nutrition plays an important role in maintaining the quality of life and good physical condition. Nutritional needs of the elderly are highly specific. The nutritional needs of the elderly are defined mainly by changes in the organism and a wide range of influencing factors resulting from a person's lifestyle. An important role is played especially by eating habits, social and cultural environment, education, social status, economic standards and, ultimately, health and psychological condition of a person. Proper nutrition of the elderly contributes to their health and wellbeing; it is also important for recovery from the illnesses to which the elderly are more vulnerable. When providing nutrition to the elderly in hospitals, the role of nurses is important. Objective of the Thesis Four objectives were specified for the thesis: 1 To find out whether nurses follow the principles of providing nutrition to the elderly. 2 To identify the most common factors that affect nutrition of the elderly in hospitals. 3 To map the most common nutritional disorders in the elderly occurring in hospitals. 4 To find out what diet is the most common in the elderly staying in hospitals. Methodology The research qualitative inquiry was conducted in the form of covert observation. The objects of observation were the nurses working at a department of aftercare, which were observed in serving food to the elderly. The covert observations were complemented with depth interviews, also with the observed nurses working at the department aftercare. The observations were processed in Microsoft Excel in the form of tables and the interviews were processed in the Atlas.ti programme. Results The observations of the nurses in serving of food to the elderly showed that all the observed nurses failed to comply with the principles of providing nutrition to the elderly in the hospital. More or less each of the observed nurses made some mistakes. The most frequently occurring mistakes were as follows: While serving food, the nurses did not use aprons or serving overalls; the nurses did not prevent direct hand contact with the food. Almost half of the observed nurses did not provide the patients with sufficient time and the support to the patients while serving the food by the observed nurses was also inadequate. Further, nearly half of the observed nurses did not wish a Bon appetite to the patients. Also noteworthy is the latest most frequent mistake: nearly half of the nurses did not put away their aids after serving food. In the interviews, the nurses surveyed identified the most frequent factors influencing nutrition of the elderly in hospitals as follows: biological changes in old age, various types of dementia, psychological condition of the individual, co-morbidities, medication use, eating habits of the individual, the state of dentition (dental prosthesis), and the influence of the family. The most common nutritional disorders identified were as follows: absence of appetite, dehydration, excess weight, obesity and malnutrition. The most common diets eaten by the elderly in hospitals were identified as follows: diets no. 3, 9, 4, 0 and also diets in ground form, puree form and food served through an NGS (nasogastric tube). Conclusion Based on the research survey and the review of expert literature, a standard of nursing care, called "Serving food to patients with deficient self-care in nutrition", was designed for nursing staff. Nursing staff will have the opportunity to use the manual that will serve them as good practice when serving food to patients with deficient self-care in nutrition, and nurses will not consider the activity as a routine procedure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:175380 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | KOPAČKOVÁ, Lucie |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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