bad57450_ch04.qxd
80
12/11/02
UNIT
■
7:01 AM
TWO
Page 80
Understanding Human Needs
Sensory Needs—Stimulation of the Five Senses (Hearing, Seeing, Feeling, Smelling,
Tasting) as Well as Intellectual Stimulation
Threatened by
Illness
Communication
Needs
Age-Specific and
Communication
Needs
Cultural Awareness
• When the senses are • Communicating with
• The loss of senses
• The various cultures
not stimulated they
people who are
during the aging
of the world relate
diminish. For example, experiencing a
process also adds to
differently to touch,
when a client is not
sensory loss takes
the loss of well-being.
gestures, and
able to eat, intravenous patience and imagina- As a health care
personal space. As a
fluids may be used.
tion. Try some of the
worker you can help
health care worker
Because the smell and following to stimulate
restore a sense of
it is important that
taste sensors are not
their senses.
well-being by being
you are mindful of
stimulated, when the
–People with hearing
aware and using
the various cultures
client begins to eat
loss can experience
techniques that help
and the potential
again it will take time
music by touching a
people experience or
barriers relative to the
for taste and smell to
speaker while it plays remember the feelings body senses. See
return to normal.
music. They can feel
of their five senses.
Unit 3 of this chapter
• The senses are less
rhythm vibrate
• When you are aware
for details.
responsive to stimulathrough the speaker. of sensory loss, talk to
tion as we age.
–Clients with touchthe person and ask
Geriatric clients may
impaired senses
what helps him or her
have lost one or more
usually lose feeling in experience the lost
of their senses. They
their hands and feet.
sense. Try various
may have difficulty
When it is reasonable, techniques that will
hearing or seeing
touch their face or
help stimulate the
which may increase
arms with things that
senses, always
their fear and cause
they want to feel, such explaining what you
anxiety.
as a warm towel.
are doing.
–Visual, smell- and
taste-impaired clients
appreciate your
description of colors,
smells, or flavors in
their environment. For
example, you might
say “Remember the
smell of turkey roasting
and fresh bread
baking? That’s what it
smells like today.”
• When working with
people show your
commitment to excellence by being sensitive and remembering
to use techniques that
help people experience
their senses.
Reporting and
Recording
Observations
• Report to your
supervisor and
record in the
medical record:
–Special requests;
–Expressed fears;
–Your instructions
about medical
routine;
–Your observations
of how the client
and family
received
instructions.