Title: Provide care for a client/resident/patient with impaired cognition, as required by Virginia Board of Nursing regulation.
Course: Nurse Aide II Condensed (14051-II-A) > Section: Developing Basic Nursing Skills

Provision should include

- use of techniques for addressing the unique needs and behaviors of a client/resident/patient with dementia (Alzheimer’s and others)
- communication with cognitively impaired clients/residents/patients
- an understanding of the behavior of cognitively impaired clients/residents/patients
- appropriate responses to the behavior of cognitively impaired clients/residents/patients
- use of methods to reduce the symptoms of cognitively impaired clients/residents/patients.

Refer to Unit IX in Nurse Aide Curriculum (https://www.dhp.virginia.gov/media/dhpweb/docs/nursing/forms/education/NurseAide_Ed_Program_Curriculum.doc), Virginia Board of Nursing, Virginia Department of Health Professions, 2018.

Process/Skill Questions:

- What specific methods can improve the cognition of the cognitively impaired client/resident/patient?
- What cognitive prompts may exist in a clinical setting (e.g., clocks, calendars, daily activity, and menu schedules)?
- How should one respond to a client/resident/patient who has asked about lunch five times in the last five minutes?
- How would you respond to a 90-year-old client/resident/patient who is asking where her mother is?
- What are four alternative activities you could suggest for a confused client/resident/patient who is becoming agitated?
- What is a memory album, and how would you use it?