Age Care Assessments

I was on my rural prac doing aged care assessment for permanent residents at the hospital. This assessment is done by a physio either six monthly or yearly and involves an in depth look at the patient mobility, balance, ROM, strength and coordination. It is documented in the patient notes and can be reference to monitor the patient through out there residency at the hospital.

This particular patient I was required to assess had been admitted due to dementia and varies co morbidities. More recently her mental status had declined and the nursing staff where finding her more and more difficult.

I had been warned that she was most likely going to be uncooperative, but I thought I could lay down a bit of the physio student charm and get her onside and happily participating in the assessment.

I strolled into her room confident as can be, quickly built some rapport with her, then wrongly asked her if she would like to participate in the assessment. She quickly changed tunes from being a nice old lady to promptly telling to where to stick it. I was shocked; I had been bitterly shut down by an old lady giving the nurse looking after her quiet chuckle and slightly denting my ego.

I walked away with my head down preparing for round two. It was extra important for me to win round two as she and her stubborn ways was the only thing stopping me from going home nice and early.

I thought I would change tacts a little and instead of asking participation in the assessment I would DEMAND it. I went in for round two, not mentioning the word assessment but rather asking the patient to do various tasks involved in the assessment. This change in communication strategy work quite well and left the nursing staff amazed I had got so much out of the patient. In the end I finished the assessment thoroughly completing the assessment. What I learnt from this was don’t give up when a patient is difficult go in for round two changing communication strategies.