Caregivers Face When it Comes to Differentiating

¶ … caregivers face when it comes to differentiating between dementia, delirium, and depression due to overlap of depression and delirium in older people. Some symptoms that accompany depression are also pronounced in dementia (Peacock, Hopton, Featherstone & Jill, 2012). These include withdrawal and sleepiness. This overlap creates some problem when it comes to differentiating the two.

Problem in this study and the purpose for which it was commissioned is clearly stated. A causal reading of the introduction will tell you what the entire study is all about and what issues it seeks to address. The first paragraph gives a clear definition of how delirium results and its prevalence in care homes and the fact that it is under-recognized by nurses. It also gives the relationship that exists between dementia and delirium, the confusion that exists between delirium and dementia, and how challenging it is to differentiate between depression, dementia, and delirium. All this informed the need for the study. Bearing in mind that nursing is all about caregiving this study is of significance to nursing practice since prevalence of dementia in care homes is so significant. This is critical in nursing practice bearing in mind that people with dementia are at greater risk of delirium and that symptoms synonymous with depression are also found with delirium. This study can help in improving nursing practice because caregivers in care homes capable of differentiating between dementia, delirium, and depression will enhance the care given to older people admitted into these homes suffering from these three conditions. Researchers were prompted to conduct this survey because of the difficulties caregivers in care homes faced when it came to differentiating between delirium, dementia, and depression. The study was financed by the University of Bradford's School of Health Studies, University of York's Department of Health Sciences, and University of Leeds' Institute of Health Sciences and School of Healthcare.

The research question is not clearly stated but I presume it should have been how to identify older patients suffering from dementia, delirium, and depression in care homes. The objective of the study was to explore how care home staff should use their perceptions and experiences of integrating delirium prevention and management activities into daily care routines. The question and the objective of the study match the purpose of the study in that the perceptions and the experiences of the staff at the care homes will help in identifying the differences in dementia, delirium, and depression in patients admitted in such facilities. Dependent variables are the caregivers' perceptions and experiences while the independent variables are the identification of dementia, delirium, and depression. Because this was a qualitative research it is not appropriate to have a hypothesis.

Literature review is comprehensive as it uses only several sources. Only one source in the literature review was published more than a decade a go, the rest were published less than five years ago. Landmark publication in the literature review include the works of Siddiqi, Clegg and Young (2009) that talks about prevalence of dementia in care homes and Featherstone, Hopton and Siddiqi (2010) that reckons the challenges faced in differentiating between dementia, delirium, and depression. Mitchell and Kakkadasam (2011) aver that when people are depressed, withdrawal and sleepiness caused by delirium may be overlooked. This to me is new knowledge that should be explored further.

The study is of high quality bearing in mind that it uses very current literature in its literature review section. Despite the fact that the research question is not explicitly stated it can be identified by just reading the introductory section. The objective of the study is explicitly stated. It is the hypothesis that is not clearly stated because of the qualitative nature of the study.