The nurse needs to determine an older adult's competence and maintenance of life skills in order to determine the most suitable living situation for them. What tool should the nurse use for this assessment?

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The Lawton IADL scale was originally developed to determine competence and maintenance of life skills such as shopping, cooking, and managing finances in a meaningful way. IADLS are a prerequisite for independent living and contains 8 items: use of telephone, shopping, meal preparation, housekeeping, laundry, transportation, self-medication, and management of finances. It is a self-report measure of performance rather than ability and is useful for discharge planning in acute hospital settings and for ongoing measurement of function in outpatient settings. It would not be useful for those residing in institutional settings because many of the tasks are already being managed for the resident. The Katz Index of ADL is based on the concept of physical disability and measures physical function in older adults and the chronically ill. The Katz ADL is valuable for planning specific types of assistance that the older person may need, rather than determining the most suitable living situation. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) are cognitive assessments.

The Nurse Needs to Determine an Older Adult's Competence and Maintenance