The purpose of this study is to describe and compare elderly and middle-age patients admitted to an acute care psychiatric facility.
The specific aims of this study are: 1) to describe the characteristic of elderly and middle aged patients admitted to an acute psychiatric facility; 2) describe the reasons for admissions of the two cohort groups; 3) describe and compare themental and physical health needs of the two cohort groups; 4) describe and compare the nursing interventions received by the two groups. The following research hypotheses will be tested: 1) There will be a significant difference between the two cohort groups in the type of self-care requisites identified as compromised; 2) The elderly group will receive significantly more interventions directed at physical needs than the younger cohort; 3) The younger cohort will receive significantly more nursing interventions directed at psychosocial needs than the older cohort group. All records for patients 30-59 years of aged and 60 years and older for the years 1982-1985 will be reviewed. This will entail the review of approximately 1350 charts. After the list of subjects is obtained, the charts will be retrieved and reviewed by two nursing research assistants. Interrater reliability will be determined prior to record review. The instrument is an adaptation of Sekerak's data retrieval tool. The tool elicits socio- demographic information, hospitalization history, reasons for admission, therapies during hospitalization and discharge status. The tool was further modified by Soposky to elicit date about nursing interventions based on Orem's model of self-care. Data will be coded, and then analyzed by computer. Descriptive data will be reported in frequencies, percentages, and measures of central tendency. Comparison of the two groups will be accomplished through Chi-square analysis at the .05 level of significance. Data analysis will also included comparison of age categories within groups to provide information about the young- old, middle-old, and old-old. Results from this study will serve as a knowledge base for experimental study of the efficacy of selected nursing interventions to meet the mental and physical health needs of elderly in acute psychiatric settings.
