Caring for the Elderly: Assessment Tools Anyalysis - Research Paper Example

In nursing process, the first step is assessing the patient's condition (Czaja et al., 2009). It involves data gathering, confirming, arranging, analyzing, and recording by healthcare practitioners (Marwit & Meuser, 2002). The aim of this procedure is to create a basis for diagnosis regarding the patient's emotional, psychosocial, and physical health (Chinn et al., 2004) to detect possible health problems and prescribe behaviors that promote and improve health (Marwit & Meuser, 2002). However, aside from assessing the patient's condition, there are other things to consider in providing care (Czaja et al., 2009), such as Jean Watson's theory that emphasizes the crucial role of the relationship between the patient and the healthcare provider (Krebs, 2001).

The main purpose of the paper is to examine how Watson's theory of human caring can be combined with the assessment tools to provide care, while discussing specific data on the three assessment tools chosen, and analyzing how these could improve the assessment procedures in nursing. Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring In 1979, Watson developed a guide for the foundation of nursing. . The clinical caritas processes provide an increased spiritual construct that serves as the foundation of providing healthcare in the context of sensitivity, love, and compassion (Krebs, 2001).

Assessment Tools Beck's Depression Inventory This tool consists of several questions that aid in detecting and determining depression and it's severity, and monitoring how the patient responds to the treatment administered. There are two types of this tool. One consists of 21 questions, while the other consists of only 7. Questions were designed to check the signs and symptoms, patterns and fluctuations of depression for both genders. It was actually mainly intended for patients in mental health care facilities, but is also used in primary care environment.

This tool is fairly easy to use and normally just takes approximately 10 minutes to finish (Marwit & Meuser, 2002). This procedure has been tested and proven to be reputable, legitimate, and reliable for various populations. The results are 90% matching with other professional depression diagnoses (Krebs, 2001). This means that the tool is effective in providing a means to improve providing healthcare because it can easily determine if a patient is depressed or not and if able to follow medical instructions or not.

For the vulnerable population of the elderly, this is particularly vital since aging causes most elderly people to get depressed (Marwit & Meuser, 2002). The cost of the procedure is not available (Krebs, 2001). CARING FOR THE ELDERLY 4 Mini-Mental Status Examination This tool consists of measuring the language, recall, registration, graphomotor function, and calculation of the patient (Tarlow et al., 2004). The main aim of this assessment is to diagnose any possibility