Nursing Interventions in Managing Wandering Behavior in Patients With Dementia: A Literature Review

Wandering behavior is common in patients with dementia. The purpose of this literature review was to define wandering, describe the factors of wandering and analyze different interventions and nursing skill of managing this behavior. Finally, barriers to and effective nursing intervention for wandering behavior will be reviewed as they appear within the literature. The search was conducted to use the PubMed, ProQuest, CINAHL, MEDLINE databases from 1990 to 2015. Search terms used included ‘wandering’, ‘intervention’, ‘dementia or Alzheimer’, ‘nursing’, and ‘elopement’. The inclusion criteria were: implementing the effective nursing intervention to manage wandering behavior, scholarly and peer reviewed journals, and publication in the English language.