Senior Health Patient Teaching Ideas
In order to teach seniors about health issues, you must know things to consider when teaching senior patients. You also should teach them about things that are of interest and will improve their health and well being.
Atmosphere For Learning
Make the senior patient feel comfortable with learning the material you, as the teacher, have to present. The senior patients should think that they can express their thoughts and ideas without fear of embarrassment. Motivate seniors by making them feel they need to learn the material you are discussing.
Techniques For Teaching
Use techniques like practice exercises, simulations, role playing, real life situations to problem solve, group discussions and personal journals. Learning new things becomes more meaningful to senior patients when they relate it to their past experiences.
Barriers To Senior Patients Learning
Each senior has different deficits that might affect his learning. As seniors age, they experience vision changes and hearing loss. Make sure the senior patient can see and hear what you are teaching.
Senior patients may learn at a slower pace. Make sure they understand the material you are presenting before moving on to new material.
Some may experience short tem memory loss. Using verbal, visual, and gestural cues help those with short term memory loss learn better.
Eating Right
Teach senior patients the importance of eating right. This includes eating food from the four major food groups (healthy grains, fruits and vegetables, proteins and dairy products). Their diet should include variety, balance and moderation. They may be tempted to eat junk and processed food. Discourage this practice.
Dealing With Chronic Pain
Many senior patients have chronic pain. Learning to manage it goes a long way in preventing falls according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Pain contributes to an overall decline in health and muscle weakness, which limits a senior's mobility. Chronic pain may be a huge distraction and makes senior patients less aware of hazards. Make sure the senior addresses her pain early with the help of a healthcare professional.
Beating Depression
A common problem of many senior patients is depression. Teaching senior patients these things will help them beat depression. Talk to them about volunteering because this will help them socialize and give to others thus improving their mood. Encourage them to talk about their feelings with a professional. Teach them the warning signs of depression. They include lack of interest, frequent crying, persistent sadness, appetite changes, sleeping too much or inability to sleep, feelings of worthlessness, and suicidal thoughts.
Tags: senior patients, Make sure, Health Patient, Health Patient Teaching, help them, Make sure senior
