Communication with Dementia Patients

Communication is usually taken for granted in our every day to day living as we use it without thought. Good communication skills are needed in the workplace and especially with nursing staff to and from patients when giving first hand care. Good or bad communication can make there experience within the health care setting a positive or negative one and can leave a lasting impression. A good health care provider can use there communication skills to put a patient at ease with a few comforting words or gestures, a lack of positive communication in the health care setting could leave the patient feeling neglected, ignored and not valued as a patient.
By successfully communication we are able to convey our thoughts and ideas effectively and when not successful the thoughts and ideas that we meant to send do not necessarily reflect what we think, causing a communication breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in our way of our goals both personally and professionally. During this essay there will be reflection upon two main keys strategies that nurses can achieve to make a difference in a communication breakdown in the health care setting with patients such as dementia. The problems that can be associated with this and also and overview of the illness of dementia.
When talking about dementia it is usually described as a syndrome which effects the brain. It is a very complicated illness and there are a lot of symptoms and problems that come along with this degenerative disease. One of the main problems of these being memory loss and thinking clearly. Patients can often forget simple things like what time of day it is the names familiar people and events in their life. They can also not realize that some activities he/she engages in are ones that now require supervision, such as cooking, ironing, or bathing. So it is important for the nurses to communicate this with the patient that the may need some help in doing self care.
Communication becomes a major problem