A 70-year-old tells a nurse, I am worried that I'm losing my ...

[danielfitts88]

A 70-year-old tells a nurse, I am worried that I'm losing my mind, I have difficulty remembering names as well as I used to, and I missed two health care appointments in the past month because I forgot about them.
 
  The nurse initiates a memory training program, although the nurse has been unable to identify any risk factors that might affect the older adult's cognitive abilities. Which of the following questions is the best approach to evaluating the effectiveness of the memory training program?
 
  A) Have you seen an improvement in your memory?
  B) Are you less worried about your memory now?
  C) How have the memory training techniques helped you?
  D) Are you using the memory training techniques now?

Question 2

A nurse assesses a 61-year-old adult who reveals that he can't process as quickly as when younger, and that all these people talk about multi-tasking, but I can't do that Which of the following responses by the nurse is appropriate?
 
  A) Have you had any other symptoms of cognitive impairment?
  B) Slower processing of information is an age-related change, and there are things you can do to help with this.
  C) The declines in cognitive skills usually begin around the age or 60.
  D) You shouldn't expect to see a decline the cognitive functions that you use all the time.

[zoeyesther]

Answer to Question 1

Ans: C
The question, How have the memory training techniques helped you?, allows the older adult to tell the nurse how memory training has helped and is more open-ended than the other options. It also communicates positive expectations. The question helps identify the techniques that are most effective for the individual.

Answer to Question 2

Ans: B
Healthy older adults will not experience any significant cognitive impairment that interferes with daily life, but they will notice minor deficits in some aspects of cognitive function and improvements in other aspects. The earliest cognitive changes are due to decreased perceptual speed. The other distracters do not answer his question. It is important for the nurse to address the client's concerns; in this case, the client is asking if it is expected to already have age-related functional consequences. Age-related declines in some cognitive skills begin around the age of 40, but there are substantial individual variations in these changes. Cognitive functions that depend on experience, accumulated knowledge, and well-practiced tasks (e.g., vocabulary) do not decline in healthy older adults, and may even improve.