Definition Medical Condition for Nursing Home
Finding a definition of a medical condition for nursing home is both an easy and difficult task. Understanding how nursing homes view medical conditions in comparison to the rest of the medical field is the starting point.
No explicit nursing home definition of a medical condition exists. However, yourdictionary.com defines "condition (medical)" as "a disease or physical ailment" or a "state of health or physical fitness."
Nursing homes add a bit to this definition, as evident by a 2010 study entitled "Medical Conditions of Nursing Home Admissions" by Gilberte Van Rensbergen and Tim Nawrot. The researchers also refer to psychiatric problems as being not only a factor involved in the medical conditions at many nursing homes, but also as one of the primary factors. Some definitions of medical conditions leave out the psychological components; however, nursing homes absolutely do not. Furthermore, the study discusses diseases relevant to the other categories of the definition.
Most Prevalent Conditions in Nursing Homes
Now that you know the types of problems that nursing homes consider to be medical conditions, perhaps you are interested in knowing which of these problems are most prevalent in nursing homes today. The same aforementioned study looked at these particular issues.
Physical Issues
As both the Your Dictionary definition and the nursing home definition imply, physical health problems are a major cause of medical conditions in nursing homes. The aforementioned study found that the three most common are:
- Neurological conditions
- Heart disease
- Orthopaedic conditions
Psychiatric Problems
The point where nursing homes differ a bit from the more general definition is when it comes to psychological issues. Nursing homes recognize these problems as medical conditions, quite probably because so many elderly people wind up suffering from them. According to the survey, the three psychological problems most seen by nursing homes are:
- Depression
- Dementia
- Alzheimer's disease
Chances are, you know at least one older person who is suffering or had suffered from one of these potentially rehabilitating conditions.
Therefore, including psychological issues in the definition of medical conditions for nursing homes is crucial, because so many of their patients are suffering from these types of issues.