Dealing Patient With Mental Disorders In Nursing Education

Mental Disorders and Dealing Patient In Nursing Education

What Are Memory Disorders,Mental Or Neurological Disorders and Memory Impairment,Teaching Strategies for Patient With Memory Impairment.

What Are Memory Disorders

    Memory is a complex process that allows people to retrieve information that has been encoded and stored in the brain (Cherry, 2017). Typically, most people can retrieve information quite quickly and without much effort from either their short term or long term memories. Short term memory refers to information that is remembered if one is attending to it for example, being able to complete the steps of a procedure in a return demonstration immediately following a presentation. 

Mental Or Neurological Disorders and Memory Impairment 

    Individuals with short term memory deficits may be unable to recall what they learned an hour before, but they may be able to recall the information at a later point in time. Long term memory consists of information that has been repeated and stored and becomes available whenever the individual thinks about it, such as being able to remember a telephone number over a long period of time. Brain injury, a wide range of diseases, and medical disorders can all result in mild to severe memory disorder.

    Brain injury often results in a memory disorder referred to as amnesia. Individuals with anterograde amnesia have memory until the brain injury but are unable to form memories in the present. Individuals with retrograde amnesia have memory loss prior to the brain injury. 

    Most people with brain injury have a combination of both types of amnesia (Mastin, 2010). In some cases, amnesia can be permanent, however, despite what is depicted in movies and television, people with amnesia typically remember who they are (Mayo Clinic, 2017).

    Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, brain tumors, and depression are just a few of the conditions that can result in some degree of memory disorder. In some conditions, such as Alzheimer's disease, memory loss increases as the disease progresses. 

    In other conditions, memory impairment is more of a nuisance than a life-altering disability. Many clients with memory disorders, for example, those with Alzheimer's disease, also experience a decline in communication skills, which makes teaching more difficult ( Machiels , Metzelthin , Hamers, & Zwakhalen , 2017).

Teaching Strategies for Patient With Memory Impairment 

    The following strategies may be helpful when working with patients who have memory loss for whatever reason and to whatever extent.

• To relearn the memory process, emphasize memory techniques that focus on the need for attention, the benefit of repeating information, and the importance of practicing recall to grasp the information being taught (Thomas, 2009).
• If the patient has intact communication skills, encourage him or her to take notes during teaching sessions or the session can be audiotaped to provide the patient and his or her family with reinforcement of information.
• If a patient has minor memory problems, assist him or her to create a system of reminders, such as use of a personal digital assistant (PDA), calendar, or sticky notes.
• Use vivid pictures or have patients draw pictures to help them visualize concepts (Wadsley, 2010).
• Teach patients to “chunk information.” For example, rather than remembering the seven numbers in a phone number, they can think about a phone number in double digits for example, 7-45-86-42 (Wadsley, 2010). The same principle can be applied to any procedure that has multiple steps.
• Structure teaching sessions to allow for brief frequent repetitive sessions that provide constant reinforcement of learning. Involve the family or caregiver in the teaching session whenever possible to support the patient and reinforce information.