British journal of community nursing
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Br J Community Nurs · Oct 2009
ReviewObservational pain assessment scales for people with dementia: a review.
Dementia may alter the experience of pain and the ability to communicate it; this will, in turn, result in poor pain detection and inadequate treatment. The aim of this literature review is to identify the observational pain scales that have clinical utility and feasibility for use with people living with dementia in the community by district nurses in their daily practice. ⋯ A further evaluation of the Non-communicative Patients Pain Assessment Instrument has improved its feasibility for use in the community environment, as it can be administered by family carers. This literature review concludes that observational pain scales need to be validated for use in the community and that there is a need to consider the involvement of the informal carer in the assessment of pain.
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Food is one of the most basic human needs for healthy wellbeing and survival, yet too many hospitals fail to give nutritional care enough priority in their day-to-day practice. So, why isn't more being done to stamp out this problem once and for all? Three years on from the launch of Age Concern and Help the Aged's Hungry to be Heard campaign to raise awareness of this issue, we're still hearing shocking stories from relatives about older people still not getting the right food and support they need to eat in hospital.