ECT NURSING INTERVENTION

Electroconvulsive therapy is sometimes used with geriatric patients (e.g., Bell and Gross, 2001: 26-36; Fernandez, 2003: 643-659; Reynolds and Kupfer, 1999: 1167-1172; Szanto, 2002: 11-24). The report presented in this paper discusses the case of Mr. Jones who was given ECT treatments due to severe depression.

Mr. Jones, had been sent from a nursing home to an adult psychiatric program that provided short-term hospitalization for acutely ill psychiatric patients. The program is characterized by rapid but in-depth evaluations and immediate initiation of treatment, the purpose being to have the patient leave the hospital as quickly as possible and continue treatment in a less restrictive outpatient setting.

Mr. Jones was a retired railroad worker who had lived alone, following the death of his wife, for 14 years prior to his dntrance into thd nursing home He had a small one-bedroom apartment in a large retirement complex. While his three children lived in different states, his surviving brother lived within an hour's drive. His children had kept in touch but when Mr. Jones began to lose his hearing, his children called less frequently and his brother visited less often. His health was good; however, he did have glaucoma for which he used eye drops to control pressure. As his contact with family lessened, Mr. Jones appeared befuddled and confused and felt that it was just too much of a strain to take c

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f these patients lives and even make them less willing to comply with their prescribed course of treatment for other conditions. In the case of Mr. Jones, ECT was used because his depression was strong and it had led to increasing difficulties with staff in the nursing home who had problems getting get him to take his medicine. He had even started refusing food. While he had been given other interventions to relive the depression, they had not produced measurable change and, in fact, he seemed to be getting worse. Implementation of the Intervention and Relevant Issues of Application The decision was made to use ECT on Mr. Jones for several reasons. First, it has been established that it works very well in the treatment of elderly patients with severe depression (Flint, 1999: 481-485). Second, it is often recomlended when severely depressed patients do not respond well to other treatments for depression (Huuhka et. al, 2004: 179-185). In general, the thinking was that ECT was best for Mr. Jones because of the severity of depression, his failure to show good response to alternative treatments, and the fact that its effects were relatively rapid in terms of inducting a clinical remission. However, there were considerations. EC
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Approximate Word count = 2381
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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