Nursing Care for Dementia Patients at Home

Abstract

Dementia already affects over 55 million people across the world, and the increasing popularity of home-based care brings opportunities and challenges to the nursing practice. The aim of this systematic review is to identify the nursing interventions provided to dementia patients in home settings, and to examine the challenges nurses encounter and how they cope with them by using individually tailored care plans. Following the PRISMA framework, an academic search was carried out in Academic Search Elite, CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar, and it was based on a systematic search of the literature. English-language papers concerning peer-reviewed publications published in the past decade were selected and led to the ultimate synthesis of 16 qualitative articles. The results were divided into five themes: care plan personalization, home nursing difficulties, family involvement, adaptive strategies, and patient outcomes. Results showed that in order to provide a successful home-based care in dementia, nursing care must be flexible, relational, and person-focused, but it is essential that family and individual care planning are involved. Judging by the synthesis, the Person-Centred Nursing framework created by McCormack was cited as the best model to inform practice, as it lays the values, relationships, and supportive environmental parameters first. The model can form a base to enhance patient and caregiver outcomes during home-based dementia care.