Anyone please help me out here.. - Alzheimer's Disease & Dementia Message Board

ForgetMeKnot · 02-18-2004, 02:33 PM

I am going to college to become a nurse, and my psychology class requires me to pick a subject to do a project on.

I have chosen alzheimer's disease, and would really appreciate it if anybody could be able to help me out with questionaires, or surveys..Not personal at all.

Please just let me know if you would be willing to help me out here.

I have yet to come up with the questions which will be like "is there anyone in your family with alzheimer's? When did they get it?" Just simple short answers.

Thanks in advance

gizmolove · 02-18-2004, 09:03 PM

Sorry but those surveys have been done to death. What is the purpose of the survey? If you have a particular purpose then the questions should write themselves. Maybe you'd want to find out how caregivers cope with a loved one with Alzheimer's. Or, maybe you want to focus on only people in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, and what their feelings and reactions are to their diagnosis. Maybe you want to do a paper on the particular difficulties in dealing with an Alzheimer's patient as compared to other illnesses. Because you see, Alzheimer's care isn't like any other kind of nursing home care or at home care. It's very difficult, both physically and mentally and emotionally. I think that it's because that Alzheimer's effects both the persons brain and their body. For this reason, Alzheimer's patients fall into a care category all their own. Maybe you just want to focus on knowledge that others have learned that help them take care of an Alzheimer's patient easier; better; more safely and more effectively.

Just asking general questions with no apparent purpose will show you very little about this disease and it's special needs.

Gizmo

ForgetMeKnot · 02-18-2004, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gizmolove

Sorry but those surveys have been done to death. What is the purpose of the survey? If you have a particular purpose then the questions should write themselves. Maybe you'd want to find out how caregivers cope with a loved one with Alzheimer's. Or, maybe you want to focus on only people in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, and what their feelings and reactions are to their diagnosis. Maybe you want to do a paper on the particular difficulties in dealing with an Alzheimer's patient as compared to other illnesses. Because you see, Alzheimer's care isn't like any other kind of nursing home care or at home care. It's very difficult, both physically and mentally and emotionally. I think that it's because that Alzheimer's effects both the persons brain and their body. For this reason, Alzheimer's patients fall into a care category all their own. Maybe you just want to focus on knowledge that others have learned that help them take care of an Alzheimer's patient easier; better; more safely and more effectively.

Just asking general questions with no apparent purpose will show you very little about this disease and it's special needs.

Gizmo

Oh no, I am not specializing in alzheimer's its just a brief project

, I have to explain what im doing and how im going to present it then describe the disorder, then "interact/get involved" with like a survey or questionaire, so then I can put them into the computer and make like a small graph out of such and such people, 5 said their alzheimer relative brought on alzheimers at 80 years old..or something like that.

I am going to talk to my professor first about the questions I want to ask.

1)How many family members do you know of have or had alzheimers disease?
2)What was the age when they were diagnosed?

Any other suggestions for questionaire questions?

i would then take those two answers and put them in a questionaire, but I have to think of 5 more questions too I think..:\

Since I have little resource with people here to ask about alzheirmers i resorted to the healthbaords

ForgetMeKnot · 02-18-2004, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gizmolove

Sorry but those surveys have been done to death. What is the purpose of the survey? If you have a particular purpose then the questions should write themselves. Maybe you'd want to find out how caregivers cope with a loved one with Alzheimer's. Or, maybe you want to focus on only people in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's, and what their feelings and reactions are to their diagnosis. Maybe you want to do a paper on the particular difficulties in dealing with an Alzheimer's patient as compared to other illnesses. Because you see, Alzheimer's care isn't like any other kind of nursing home care or at home care. It's very difficult, both physically and mentally and emotionally. I think that it's because that Alzheimer's effects both the persons brain and their body. For this reason, Alzheimer's patients fall into a care category all their own. Maybe you just want to focus on knowledge that others have learned that help them take care of an Alzheimer's patient easier; better; more safely and more effectively.

Just asking general questions with no apparent purpose will show you very little about this disease and it's special needs.

Gizmo

Oh no, I am not specializing in alzheimer's its just a brief project

, I have to explain what im doing and how im going to present it then describe the disorder, then "interact/get involved" with like a survey or questionaire, so then I can put them into the computer and make like a small graph out of such and such people, 5 said their alzheimer relative brought on alzheimers at 80 years old..or something like that.

I am going to talk to my professor first about the questions I want to ask.

1)How many family members do you know of have or had alzheimers disease?
2)What was the age when they were diagnosed?
3) Does it run in your family?
4)How does it affect you when other members have it?
5) How much do you know about alzheimer's disease? (little, enough, alot)
6)have you ever had to care for a alzheimers patient(family member)?

Any other suggestions for questionaire questions?

Since I have little resource with people here to ask about alzheirmers i resorted to the healthbaords

The purpose is to help me with my project, since I have no one else to ask cuz I am kinda on my own.

gizmolove · 02-19-2004, 09:11 AM

Your local or our national Alzheimer's Association (which is a 1-800 #) has all the information you need to compile survey questions. However interesting surveys may be, when you have seen one case of Alzheimer's, that's exactly what you have seen ..... ONE CASE OF ALZHEIMER'S.

Surveys show that less than 15% of Alzheimer's is familial. That is of little comfort for me; in that my grandmother, uncle and mother all had Alzheimer's. And, that makes my chances of getting this disease about double. So, although graphs may be interesting, they in no way show the true human condition nor educate in how to treat this disease or show how to cope with it on a personal nor professional level. (which I would suppose, is what a nurse must learn). We do have someone here named Barbara. I would hope that she would post to you, to tell you what it is like, not only to treat people with this monsterous disease (as a nurse), but to live with it on a personal basis as well. (It IS a living hell).

Gizmo