What are the key points of daily care for the elderly

The core point of daily care for the elderly is actually not that complicated. The essence is to avoid risks around physiological degenerative changes, while adapting to the independent wishes of the elderly. There is no need to rigidly implement standardized care plans in order to "meet the standards."

I have been working in a community nursing center for almost 6 years, and I have seen too many children who just followed the online care list and ended up with problems. There used to be a 78-year-old Aunt Zhang who had high blood pressure and mild osteoporosis. Her children found out that she needed to walk 5,000 steps a day to be healthy, so they forced her to walk around the community every day. As a result, in the second month, she stepped on a pebble and sprained her foot. After lying down for half a month, her blood pressure soared even higher. Later, we adjusted the plan and followed Auntie's preference. We moved a small stool to sit in the rose garden downstairs for half an hour every morning, picking residual flowers. When we were tired, we would walk slowly home for 10 minutes. After more than half a year, my blood pressure has been very stable, and my feet have no more problems.

Many people think that nursing is just about taking medicine, feeding, and cleaning the body. In fact, the first thing to do is to find out the "baseline" of the body of the elderly person in their own family. For example, some elderly people have a basal body temperature that is 0.5°C lower than young people all year round, so there is no need to rush to give antipyretics as soon as it reaches 37°C; some elderly people have constant constipation, so instead of using violent laxatives when they get constipated, first check to see if they have eaten too much polished rice and white flour recently, and if they have been moving for more than ten minutes a day, which is more gentle and more effective than any other medicine.

There are different opinions in the industry regarding anti-fall care for disabled elderly people. Some organizations believe that safety should be given priority and restraint belts should be used to avoid falls when necessary. Many clinical nurses also believe that the emotional stress caused by restraints is more harmful than minor bumps. Our station previously picked up disabled Grandpa Li. His family members were afraid that he would fall, so they tied him to a wheelchair with restraints during the day. As a result, the old man went on a hunger strike for two days and refused to say a word. Later, we added liftable protective rails to the bedside at home, and covered the floor of the entire bedroom and living room with a two-centimetre-thick climbing mat. Even if he accidentally slipped from the bed, he would not be hurt. After untying the restraints, the old man's mood gradually stabilized, and he can now move a few steps with the help of a walker.

Another detail that is easily overlooked is oral care. Many family members think that the elderly have bad teeth, so they just drink porridge every time. On the contrary, it is easy to leave food residues in the gaps between the teeth. Over time, not only toothache will occur, but also aspiration pneumonia may occur. A while ago, an old man in our area suffered from repeated low-grade fevers. After a round of investigations, no problem was found. Finally, he went to the dental department and found that the inflamed wisdom teeth had not been treated and the infection had spread. The family members did not pay attention to cleaning the gaps between his teeth. Even an old man who wears dentures must take off his dentures every day and soak them in cleaning fluid, and rinse his mouth after every meal. This small thing can save a lot of trouble.

As for the seemingly "weird" little habits of the elderly, such as saving old paper shells and being reluctant to throw away old clothes, just let them go as long as they don't pile up in the aisles blocking the road and causing the risk of falling. There’s really no need to be too dogmatic. To put it bluntly, elderly care is like maintaining an old mobile phone that has been used for more than ten years. You don’t have to flash it to a new system and restore the performance of a new mobile phone. As long as it can run steadily according to its rhythm and have fewer failures, the elderly can live comfortably, which is better than anything else.