Author(s)

Liliana Henriques¹, Marília Dourado², Rosa Melo³, João Araújo¹, Mafalda Inácio⁴

¹Instituto Gineste-Marescotti Portugal, Via Hominis, Leiria, Portugal.
²Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
³Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
⁴Centro de Solidariedade e Cultura de Peniche, Leiria, Portugal.

The increasing number of elderly people with behavioral changes, agitation, aggressiveness, and refusal to receive care imposes new challenges to caregivers, who need to take ownership of innovative care methodologies to better take care of this group of people. Objective: To evaluate the benefits of the Humanitude Care Methodology (HCM) in order to improve the health condition of people admitted in a Portuguese Integrated Continuing Care Unit (UCCI). Methods: An action research study was conducted between September and December 2016. The sample consisted of 33 people who were admitted in this UCCI for at least 90 days. Monthly data collection, during four periods, using the Braden Scale, Morse Scale, Barthel Index and Mini Mental State Examination. The data was processed using the Statistical Package for Social Science, version 17.0. Results: The following decreases were observed: in individuals with cognitive deficit (93.94 percent to 81.82 percent); in individuals considered totally dependent (60.61 percent to 30.30 percent); at risk developing pressure ulcers (PU) (84.85 percent to 51.52 percent); in individuals who had PU (24.24 percent to 15.15 percent); in people with high risk of fall (45.45 percent to 39.39 percent); in the number of individuals with two antipsychotic prescriptions (27.27 percent to 9.09 percent). Conclusions: These results allowed to understand the positive benefits, of implementing the HCM, on the people receiving care, specifically at cognitive level, dependency level in activities of daily living, and the avoidance of physical and mental deterioration.

Healthcare Quality, Humanization of Care, Patient-Centered Care, Elderly Care, Dementia

Henriques, L. , Dourado, M. , Melo, R. , Araújo, J. and Inácio, M. (2020) Methodology of Care Humanitude Implementation at an Integrated Continuing Care Unit: Benefits for the Individuals Receiving Care. Open Journal of Nursing, 10, 960-972. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2020.1010067.