Cognition Flashcards
Difference between accommodation and assimilation
When new info…
Accommodation: challenges existing schemas
Assimilation: strengthens existing schemas
Polypharmacy
Regular use of 5+ medications
Cognition: Top 2 Red-Flags
- Glasglow: 3-10
- Elderly with ALOC
Frontal lobe
Executive function
Voluntary movement
Parietal lobe
Processes touch & combines all senses
Temporal lobe
Processes auditory info
Memory, emotions, language
Occipital lobe
Processes visual info
Cognition: Risk factors
Drugs/alcohol
Physical trauma
Aging
Chronic diseases
Heart or developmental defects
Cognition: Top 3 Red-Flags for infants
- Inconsolable
- Lethargy
- Opp behavior than normal
At what Glasglow score should the patient be intubated?
8 = intubate
9-10 watch carefully
Characteristics of Piaget’s stage: Sensorimotor
Birth - 2yrs
Learn thru feeling/touch/taste
Develop object permanence
Characteristics of Piaget’s stage: Preoperational
2 - 7yrs
Learn thru play & by doing things on their own
Start learning right vs wrong
Characteristics of Piaget’s stage: Concrete-operational
7-11yrs
Learn problem solving/reasoning, working together (school)
Know right vs wrong
Characteristics of Piaget’s stage: Formal operational
Adolescents
Deductive reasoning & abstract thinking
What are some signs of ALOC that’s not included in the Glasgow coma scale?
Anxiety/Restlessness
Difficulty concentrating
Sluggish or fixed pupils
What are the top 3 ways to prevent ALOC?
Diet
Exercise
No drug use
Interventions for ALOC
- Protect airway w/ NPO (8 = intubate)
- Fall precautions
Reduce polypharmacy
Continue to reorient
Provide consistent routines
Let them make decisions as often as possible
What are elderly patients w/ALOC at risk for?
Forgetting to eat/drink
If immobile or forget to get up: skin breakage & lower respiratory effort
If an elderly patient arrives at the hospital with an ALOC, what is the first possible cause you should think of?
Bacterial infection
What are some unusual causes of ALOC?
Infection
Kidney or liver failure (waste products)
Hypoglycemia (quickly causes ALOC)
Seizures (acidic)
Hypoxia
Dehydration
How does a ALOC test differ on an elderly patient?
They feel less pain.
They think slower (myelin sheath erodes).
