What are the conditions of residents in a nursing home?

There are different types of long term care facilities (nursing homes) and varying levels of care. The severity of the conditions, and sometimes the types of conditions, will differ depending on the type or level of care that the facility is certified to provide. For example, there are facilities that accept and can only care for patients with Dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease and other conditions of disorientation and confusion. There are also facilities specializing in long term care of persons with mental illness, substance abuse, and/or psychiatric disorders. Still other facilities, called Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF), treat and care for patients recently hospitalized who have been discharged with conditions requiring continuing assessment and care by professional RNs on a frequent daily basis, such as residents who need Intravenous (IV) fluids or IV medications, or other special technical treatments (care of wounds with special equipment or sterile technique, etc) or close continuous monitoring for signs of worsening conditions. Those can include patients who are getting immediate post surgical care or have medical conditions that require the frequent assessment by licensed nurses (such as after a heart attack or recent stroke or other major body system failure or disorder). After their acute care needs have been met in a hospital, some SNF residents require services and care from other licensed health care professionals on a daily basis (like physical therapy after a fractured hip or knee replacement, etc.). The SNF facilities are used for shorter term periods of confinement and many patients are there only until they are rehabilitated or medically stable and ready to return to the pre-hospital living arrangement. Or, if the condition stablilizes and the level of care needed is less intensive, but they are still not able to return to the preadmission setting, they may be transferred to a lower level of care facility (or section of the same facility) to continue the less intense care. When the condition can be adequately treated in a lower level of care with a reduction in intensity of the observation or level of skills required, such residents may move from the SNF to an Intermediate Care Facility (ICF). Residents may also be admitted directly to the ICF from home when it becomes impractical or unsafe for them to continue living in the home setting. The conditions there can include Alzheimer's and other dementia, medical conditions such as chronic lung diseases with oxygen, heart problems, diabetic complications, long term infections or Infectious Diseases, degenerative physical conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis and other medical or surgical conditions needing services of a nurse (RN or LPN) for only some portion of each day. Another level of facility with less intensity of care than ICF is the Assisted Living (AL) level of care. The clients treated in AL facilities usually need some help with some or all of the activities of daily living (ADL), such as dressing, eating, bathing, medication monitoring and administration, mobility, etc. They might require assistance living with other long term chronic disorders. Or, they may need to be protected from harm in cases with no physical illness but with some aspect of mild dementia. Clients who want to have access to activities, community and companionship, and unlicensed, trained caregivers to provide monitoring (if changes in condition are possible), may choose to live in facilities that have apartments or rooms for residents in Independant Living (IL) settings where they can manage on their own for ADLs, shopping, cooking, medications, etc. or may choose, if the option is offered, to pay for additonal services like meals, laundry, transportation, shopping, housekeeping, etc.