| This study examined the perceptions of registered nurse caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients. Eight registered nurses with varying levels of nursing education and experience, who worked in nursing homes and cared for dementia residents, were interviewed regarding their perceptions and interventions for aggression in Alzheimer's disease. Methods included the completion of a demographic survey and ethnographic interviews. The study was guided by the Need-Driven Dementia-Compromised Behavior Model (Kolanowski, 1999) which purports that aggressive behaviors are caused by an interactive relationship between background and proximal factors of the individual.; Nurses perceived anger, sadness, and frustration with Alzheimer's disease and saw the related aggression as unpredictable and senseless violence, a self-protective action, or as a communication system. Results suggested that Validation Therapy (Feil, 2002) is an important tool in identifying triggers of aggression and also in treating and preventing further aggression. |
