COVID-19 Pandemic and Nursing Approaches in Fragile Elderly

Abstract

Coronaviruses, a large group of large, diverse single-chain RNA viruses that cause disease in humans and animals, are the cause of unidentified cases of pneumonia in China in December 2019. This respiratory infection, which was identified as COVID-19 by 2020, has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization worldwide. The number of cases and those who lost their lives due to the disease increases day by day, reaching serious dimensions for all humanity. The mortality rate is higher than other age groups, especially for the elderly and those with chronic disease. To be 9.1% of the elderly population ratio in Turkey shows that countries has a big risk in this regard. Another group that is riskier in terms of COVID-19 than other populations is the fragile elderly. Fragile older people show features that are dependent on someone else in maintaining daily life activities, have low mobility, and characterized by weakness. For this reason, it is important to protect the fragile elderly population from COVID-19 and to establish correct planning and practices for diagnosis and post-treatment rehabilitation as soon as possible. The purpose of writing this review is to identify nursing interventions for the effects of COVID-19 in elderly people with fragility criteria and to contribute to the literature in this regard.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Fragile elderly
• Nursing approaches

COVID-19 Pandemisi ve Kırılgan Yaşlılarda Hemşirelik Yaklaşımları

Abstract

İnsanlarda ve hayvanlarda hastalığa neden olabilecek, büyük çok çeşitli tek zincirli RNA virüslerinin büyük bir grubu olan koronavirüsler, Aralık 2019 ile birlikte Çin’de tanımlanamayan pnömoni vakalarının sebebi olarak gündeme gelmiştir. 2020 yılı ile birlikte COVİD-19 olarak tanımlanmış olan bu solunum yolu enfeksiyonu, Dünya Sağlık Örgütü tarafından tüm dünyada pandemi ilan edilmiştir. Vakaların ve hastalığa bağlı hayatını kaybedenlerin sayısı her geçen gün daha da artarak bütün insanlık için ciddi boyutlara ulaşmaktadır. Özellikle yaşlı ve kronik hastalığı olanlar için mortalite oranı diğer yaş gruplarına göre oldukça yüksektir. Türkiye’nin yaşlı nüfus oranının %9,1 olması, bu konuda risk altında olduğunu göstermektedir. Günlük yaşam aktivitelerinin sürdürülmesi konusunda bağımlı, hareket etme kabiliyeti daha düşük, halsizlik ve kuvvetsizlikle karakterize bir grup olan kırılgan yaşlı popülasyonu, COVİD-19 konusunda diğer gruplardan daha riskli ve bir gruptur. Bu nedenle kırılgan yaşlı popülasyonunun COVİD-19’dan korunması, tanı ve tedavi sonrası rehabilitasyonuna yönelik doğru planlama ve uygulamaların en kısa zamanda oluşturulması oldukça önemlidir. Bu derlemenin yazılmasındaki amaç, kırılganlık kriterlerine sahip yaşlılarda COVİD-19’un etkilerine yönelik hemşirelik müdahalelerini tanımlamak ve literatüre bu konuda katkı sağlamaktır.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Kırılgan yaşlı
• Hemşirelik yaklaşımları

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