Alzheimer's Stages: What are the Stages of Alzheimer's Disease Nursing NCLEX

hey everyone it's sarah register nurse rn.com and in this video i'm going to be going over the stages of alzheimer's disease so let's get started first we have pre-clinical alzheimer's disease and this is where changes are occurring in the brain but no symptoms are noted and this can happen over years next is mild cognitive impairment and this is where the patient starts to have memory changes that are subtle but it doesn't affect their activities they may start forgetting recent commitments new people they've met or conversations they've had recently and they start to get confused on places and time and they may report you know something just doesn't feel right in my brain it's like i can't think clearly and this stage can last for several years next is mild alzheimer's disease and this is early stage alzheimer's this is typically when patients are diagnosed with alzheimer's disease they're going to start having mild forgetfulness that is noticed by the patient family members and friends and it's beginning to affect some parts of their functioning they're going to have short-term memory problems like they're going to frequently lose objects can't remember new material they've just learned maybe start having trouble at their jobs learning new things they'll start repeating themselves and asking the same questions over and over language problems can start like they're trying to talk to you but they forget a word and they may start having mental instability which is going to be recognized by family members like depression confusion having sleep problems things that just isn't normal for the patient now the thing with this stage is that they can still function and be independent what's going on with them in their brain isn't affecting their ability to live out life but during this time if the patient's diagnosed knows they have alzheimer's this is when the nurse wants to go over with the patient about the progression of the disease and tell the patients time to start planning for the future and incorporating family members as they want to like discussing end-of-life care estate planning and so forth and this sage lasts a couple of years next is moderate alzheimer's disease the middle stage now this is when things start to change confusion now sets in that affects the patient's ability to function and they're going to need help safety is a main issue with this patient along with helping them with their self-care and medical needs so their judgment is going to start to become lapsed they are going to have major safety issues getting lost doing a thing called wandering which i'm going to go over in the nursing interventions they will forget how to cook or use objects with hygiene they need help with the bathroom how to dress especially depending on the weather they may not pick the right outfits confusing family members having sleep problems major mental instability where they have episodes of anger and anxiety and hallucinations so during this stage the patient is active they can get up and move around but they don't have the cognitive ability to make sure that they're doing the appropriate things without getting hurt also caregivers may start recognizing a phenomenon called sun downer syndrome and as a nurse i have seen this this is absolutely real and as the day draws closer to evening the patient will start to get confused they may become more agitated they'll start hallucinating and just get really restless so this stage for the caregiver is a very intense time because the patient must be monitored at all times and requires a lot of supervision and care and this stage of alzheimer's is actually the longest stage of all then lastly we have the severe alzheimer's disease stage called light stage and this is where symptoms are very severe a lot of times they're no longer able to participate in life like have language communication will be very minimal with limited motor activities they're going to spend much of their time in bed sitting staring they can start to have problems with swallowing eating and they're going to need constant care during this time now because they start having issues with swallowing like called dysphagia they are at huge risk for lung infections like pneumonia a lot of times patients develop this so the patient needs to be evaluated by a speech language pathologist to see if they may need a feeding tube or their liquids need to be thickened or their food consistency should be altered to help protect those lungs now interacting with the patient during this stage is just as important as interacting with them before they progress to this stage but communication does change a little bit because like i said they're going to have minimal communication skills so using non-verbal communication like facial expression body gestures is good using touch as needed and just providing a calming relaxing environment for the patient during the day like with music promotes good quality care okay so that wraps up this review and if you'd like to watch more videos in this series you can access the link in the youtube description below

Channel: RegisteredNurseRN

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Keywords: alzheimer's stages, what are the stages of alzheimers disease, alzheimers disease stages, stages of alzheimer's disease, 5 stages of alzheimer's disease, stages of alzheimers disease nursing, stages of alzheimer's disease nursing, alzheimer's disease, alzheimer's disease nclex, alzheimer's disease nursing, nursing, nclex, alzheimers, preclinical alzheimers disease, late stage alzheimers disease, moderate alzheimers disease, early alzheimers disease

Id: LIpNBNlBpbQ

Length: 4min 57sec (297 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022