Post- Hospital Elder Life Program Assignment

My knowledge of preventative factors for delirium expanded as a result of participating in the Hospital Elder Life Program because I practiced orienting clients, performing range of motion exercise, learned about their lives, inquired about their sleep, appetite, and pain management, and talked to them about their health goals for the future. Each conversation was vastly different but all had the same underlying goals: preventing delirium and helping older people stay as healthy as possible in body and mind. My goals were to be kind and have a caring attitude while trying to orient patients at risk of developing delirium. I wanted to be able to talk with older adults and help prevent prolonged hospital stays for them and learn more about delirium because it is prevalent in hospital settings. I would say that I definitely met these goals by working the three shifts and having many meaningful conversations with patients at Maine Medical Center. I displayed compassion and worked hard to get through my list of patients while spending adequate time with each one.

My most meaningful interactions as part of this program occurred when visiting patients that do not get many visitors and display increased loneliness. I could just tell which patients received visitors daily and had enough people to converse with versus patients who were only able to converse with their healthcare workers that have very limited time to spend just conversing. These patients get out of the conversation what they put into it. Some patients didn’t want to talk to me and that was okay, but the patients that were willing and excited got a lot out of it. I loved hearing stories about their jobs, children, grandchildren, and pets. I also received lots of advice as these people have led long lives full of lessons and experiences. I will remember these conversations forever and I really hope that they will do and that I at least helped a little bit to prevent delirium from occurring from their hospital stay.