What is the content of daily care for the elderly?

There is no unified standardized list of daily care for the elderly. The core is to cover the three dimensions of physiological care, chronic disease management, and emotional and social support on the premise of ensuring the safety and comfort of the elderly. The specific content will be flexibly adjusted according to the elderly's self-care ability, basic diseases, and personal wishes. It is not a rigid task list.

When many family members first came into contact with nursing, they always thought that only feeding, wiping themselves, and giving medicines could be considered serious nursing care. In fact, this is not the case. I recently contacted Aunt Zhang, who lives in Chengxi Community, who is semi-autonomous, has high blood pressure and early signs of Alzheimer's disease. Before, her family only focused on As a result, she always secretly hid her snacks and fed them to the stray cats downstairs. Her blood sugar spiked several times, and her family members were so anxious that they locked up all the snacks at home. This made Aunt Zhang lose her temper every day, and her blood pressure fluctuated. Later, we adjusted the care plan and set aside 20 minutes every afternoon for the caregiver to accompany her to bring her a certain amount of low-sugar snacks to feed the cats. This not only complied with her wishes, but also kept her daily sugar intake strictly controlled. In less than half a month, her blood pressure and blood sugar were stabilized, and she no longer had trouble with her family members.

There are actually different voices in the industry regarding the boundaries of nursing care. Some people think that nursing care must strictly follow operating standards. For example, a bedridden elderly person must turn over every two hours to avoid pressure sores. Some people think that if the elderly person happens to be in a deep sleep state, forcing him to wake up and turn over will disrupt his sleep. Sleep rhythm, on the contrary, affects immunity. When we practice now, we will communicate with the elderly and family members in advance to determine the priorities. If we meet the elderly who have very light sleep and find it difficult to fall asleep again after waking up, we will use thickened pressure-reducing mattresses to appropriately lengthen the interval between turning over to ensure the quality of rest.

Of course, there are also some details that cannot be missed regardless of the elderly's ability to take care of themselves, such as the observation of skin condition. Don't think that it is not necessary for elderly people who can take a bath by themselves. There was a 78-year-old Uncle Li. His legs and feet were sharp but he couldn't see the cataracts clearly. He couldn't clean the groin and armpit folds in the summer bath. He was embarrassed to tell his children that he had eczema. He had to bear it for almost a week until he was in pain and couldn't walk. You can tell him how much he suffered. Later, every time our caregivers came to the house, they would ask if there was any itching or pain on the body. They would do a skin check on the whole body once a week, and such problems never occurred again.

Speaking of which, nursing care for the elderly is actually like maintaining an old house that has been lived in for decades. You don’t just have to fix the leaks. You should pay more attention to minor problems and make adjustments according to the structure and habits of the house. Don’t tear it apart and make forced changes. Just like before, there was a retired middle school history teacher whose children were not around. He sat by the window and looked outside every day, saying very little. We later contacted the summer care class in the community and asked him to tell the children twice a week the story of his participation in the educated youth going to the countryside when he was young. He only went there three times, and his whole spirit was different. Before each visit, he said: He irons his clothes neatly in advance and makes small cards for his children. Last time he had his blood pressure measured, it was almost 10 mmHg lower than before. Even his attending doctor praised his good health. This kind of content that helps the elderly regain social connection may not seem to have anything to do with "nursing," but in fact it is the core part that can truly improve the quality of life of the elderly.