NURSING-STUDENTS EXPERIENCES CARING FOR COGNITIVELY IMPAIRED ELDERLY PEOPLE

Over the next half century the population of moderately to severely de mented individuals is projected to nearly triple. Because high complex technology is usually not required in the care of cognitively impaire d elderly people, these individuals may be the first patients nursing students are assigned to care for. Despite the fact that these elderly people do not require 'high tech' care, their nursing care can be ext remely challenging for nursing students. In order to help prepare nurs ing students to meet this challenge, a phenomenological study was cond ucted to describe the meaning of nursing students' experiences caring for cognitively impaired elderly people. Thirty-seven undergraduate nu rsing students participated in the study. Each student described in wr iting an experience he/she had had while caring for a cognitively impa ired elderly person. Using Colaizzi's phenomenological method to analy se these descriptions, five themes emerged. Nursing students experienc ed a myriad of emotions such as frustration, sadness, fear and empathy . Caring for cognitively impaired elderly people presented difficult c hallenges for nursing students to overcome. Because of the difficultie s encountered in caring for confused elderly people, nursing students utilized multiple nursing care approaches. As a result of giving care to elderly people suffering from dementia, negative consequences ensue d for some nursing students. The positive outweighed the negative cons equences in the phenomenological study. Implications for nurse educato rs are addressed.