Which of these principles should be followed while caring for an elderly person at home?

BTSC Staff Nurse 1 August-2025

Community Health Nursing

Medium

Appeared in: BTSC Staff Nurse 1 August-2025

Explanation

The correct option represents the first two steps of the nursing process: assessment and planning.
Collecting facts (assessment) about the person, their home, and their environment is crucial for developing a safe, personalized, and effective care plan.
This approach ensures that care is tailored to the individual's specific needs, preferences, routines, and potential risks (like fall hazards).
It is a person-centered approach that respects the individual's life experiences, values, and autonomy.

Option A: Removing familiar objects like clocks and calendars can cause disorientation, confusion, and emotional distress. These items help the elderly person stay oriented to time and place, providing a sense of security.
Option B: While meant to be respectful, imposing a generic title like 'sir' and never using the person's name can be depersonalizing. The correct approach is to ask the person how they would like to be addressed and respect their preference.
Option C: Consistency and routine are vital for the well-being of elderly individuals, especially those with cognitive decline. Changing the care plan daily creates instability, anxiety, and confusion.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Principles of Geriatric Home Care as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
A thorough initial and ongoing assessment is a core nursing responsibility. In home care, this includes evaluating the physical environment for safety risks such as poor lighting, loose rugs, and lack of handrails, which are major causes of falls.
Respecting a patient's identity by using their preferred name is fundamental to therapeutic communication and building trust, which is essential for a positive nurse-patient relationship.
What if? If an elderly person has severe dementia and is non-verbal, the assessment becomes even more critical. The nurse would then rely on observing behaviors, reviewing history with family, and noting reactions to stimuli to plan care, focusing on safety, comfort, and maintaining dignity through actions rather than words.

How to Approach the Question

Identify the question type: This is a 'best practice' question asking for the most appropriate principle of care.
Analyze the core concept: The question is about providing care to an elderly person at home, which involves principles of safety, respect, and individualized care.
Evaluate each option against established nursing principles.
Eliminate options that are clearly detrimental. Removing orientation aids (Option A), depersonalizing communication (Option B), and creating instability (Option C) are all counterproductive to good care.
Identify the option that aligns with the foundational steps of the nursing process. Option D describes assessment and planning, which are the first and most crucial steps in providing any form of nursing care.
Confirm that the chosen option is the most comprehensive and fundamentally correct principle among the choices.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Principles of Geriatric Home Care
Stem keywords: principles, caring, elderly person, home
Lead-in keywords: Which
Clinical cues: Age/sex group narrows the expected diagnosis, intervention, or normal reference range.
Clinical cues: The care setting changes urgency, monitoring level, and the expected nursing action.

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E6 Nursing Fundamentals Potter Perry 12e Part 1 pp. 223-225, 224-226

E6 Nursing Fundamentals Taylor p. 280-282