Geriatric Nursing
Geriatric Nursing
Geriatric Nursing
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Geriatric nurses tend to be educated to enable them treat plus understand the most complex mental and physical health needs of the older individuals. They attempt to assist their patients safeguard their health as well as cope with the changes within their physical and mental capabilities, so that the older individuals may remain independent as well as active for the longest time possible. The gerontological nursing is considered to be the nursing specialty that pertains to the older adults. These nurses operate alongside collaboration with the older individuals, the communities plus their families with the intention of supporting a healthy aging, quality of life in addition to maximum functioning (Yiqun, 2021). Geriatric Nursing
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The geriatric nurses are supposed to enjoy working with the individuals who are older. They should be patient, listen with a lot of attentiveness as well as the balance the necessities of the patients with a times demands that are conflicting from the members of the family.
The targeted audience
With geriatrics, its all about care for the older people, this happens to be an age group that quote difficult to precisely define. The term older tends to be more preferable as compared to elderly though they are somehow equal. Sixty five years and above is the mostly used age, however, most individuals are not in need of geriatrics professionalism within their care till they are around 70 – 80 years of age. The target audience is actually the senior citizen segment which comprises of approximately 75 million individuals. They basically posses huge amounts of an income that is disposable, and are in search of guidance to assist them live longer and healthier lives. This targeted audience is classified into four. The pre-retirees who are in between 50-65 years. There is also the grandparents in addition to relatives who are in the age bracket of 50 years and above. The third category is the one that is made up of the late retirees who happen to be between the age bracket of 65 years to 75 years. It mainly constitutes of individuals above the standard age of retirement. The last category of the targeted audience is the active retirees. This is a group that is made up is seniors who are not having any active income (Van Seben, et.al, 2019).
With this particular group, when teaching the on the health promotion, it is evident that prevention of diseases as well as early detection happens to be the most appropriate strategy for a successful management of a chronic disease. The elderly need to know that identifying plus early intercurrent illness treatment is extremely crucial within the seniors who are quite frail. The elderly are supposed to get educated on the importance of exercises daily, healthy eating, alongside leaving a life that is stress free. The adults under medication are supposed to take as per the prescriptions and faithfully in order to have their health promoted.
Teaching theory
It is appropriate to utilize teaching techniques during the providence of health teachings for the older individuals. There are several elders with increasing challenges in understanding the complex sentences, have less proficiency as compared to the younger individuals when it comes to drawing of inferences, alongside having challenges with the motor tasks. The information should be prevented through a slower pace contrary to the younger patients. The best theory is the behavioral theory. Due to their character traits, it is advisable to speak using low voice tones as well as enable adequate time for the patients to integrate and also assimilate the conceptual material, in addition to putting emphasis on concrete instead of abstract material (Ahmed, et.al, 2020).
It becomes paramount to minimize the environmental distractions which is essential in compensating for any hearing loss that is age-related as well as aid the patient with concentration plus attention. Carrying out group teaching might assist the elderly patients to enhance their health-related problem solving capabilities. During the suggestion of lifestyle changes, it is important to take into account that most of the elderly individuals extremely cautious and might fail to accept the changes with ease. In the behavioral teaching, in order to achieve effectiveness in the teaching, the program is supposed to be individualized so that it suits the lifestyle as well as the necessities of the older patients, as well as ensure that the goals are mutually acceptable. Patients are supposed to actively participate in the goal setting. When it comes to planning the patient teaching for these elderly individuals, the goals should be individualized as per the requirements of the patients in addition to what they are supposed to do for themselves (Teófilo, et.al, 2019).
Importance of this teaching theory
The main essence of using the behavioral theory is mainly because, with the advancing age, the memory of an individual tends to be much better as compared to the information that has been seen. As a result, an older patient has high probabilities of remembering information that they get to hear contrary to the information that they have read from somewhere. In order to enhance learning for any patient who has memory loss, it is important to have the message repeated frequently during the teaching, as well as have the patient questioned frequently in order to determine the retention level. The theory helps one to pay specific attention to the language that is used in teaching (Ahmed, et.al, 2020).
It enables one to choose simple, elaborated terminology then have talks that are on the level of the patient. There are several elderly individuals who tend to be highly educated, hence have a preference that during the training one uses as well as gives explanations using the medical terminology, there are others who prefer keeping interactions to be short and precise.
Diversity effects
Being a teaching, one gets to play the role of a facilitator then encourage conversation plus healthy debate in between the opinions that are diverse. The group assignments are perceived to be a great means of exposing students to perspectives that are diverse, enabling them to function as one in exploring plus solving challenges. Among the diversity issues affecting the teaching happens to be socioeconomic status which greatly affects the psychological health of an aging patient. Poverty is said to be a risk factor for the declines within the mental health amidst the older individuals. The elderly who are socioeconomic status levels that are lower are in most occasions most probably to be diagnosed with having a psychological disorder.
There is also the issue of gender in that, the women who are older and suffering from dementia were said to be having higher risks of suffering from physical abuse plus neglect by the family caregivers. In the training, it is important to note out the contributing factors to the elder abuse within individuals who have dementia, these comprise of; poverty, low education levels of the caregiver plus the victim, abuse of alcohol and social isolation among others (Hsieh and Chen, 2018).
Minimizing health disparities plus attaining of equitable health care continues to be an essential goal for the healthcare system within the United States. Cultural competence is essential in addressing the diversity during the education program. It acts as a foundational pillar when it comes to minimizing disparities via culturally sensitive plus quality care that is unbiased. The care that is culturally competent is one that greatly respects diversity within the patient population plus cultural factors capable of affecting health plus healthcare, like communication styles, behaviors, language, attitudes in addition to beliefs.
It is quite evident that racism is a factor that leads to creation of systemic stressors resulting into health outcomes that are poor as well as accelerates aging. This causes biological weathering and is capable of demonstrating the telomeres shortening. This happens to be evidence of aging that is early within individuals who have been exposed to the side cumulative stress. The same way gerontologists become aware of the fact that age is quite a limited plus crude variable that is actually explanatory, it is the same situation with ethnicity and race (Wollesen, et.al, 2019).
Solving conflicts
During the training, there are several ways in which the conflicts that arise in between the older patients might be solved. These include:
Compromising – which involves making efforts to have the conflict resolved through identifying a solution that happens to be partially satisfactory to the two parties, and should never be entirely satisfactory to any of the parties. There is collaborating – involves being in cooperation with different participants to understand their own concerns as well as express personal concerns in an attempt to identify a mutually plus entirely satisfactory solution. These is a very beneficial strategy in addressing interpersonal conflict situations because it ends up promoting creative problem solving in addition to being a means of fostering rapport plus mutual respect. Therefore, despite there being lots of ways to address conflicts, collaboration is effective as it does not force, compromise, avoid or even accommodate (Dai, et.al, 2021).
References
Ahmed, R. R., Streimikiene, D., Abrhám, J., Streimikis, J., & Vveinhardt, J. (2020). Social and behavioral theories and physician’s prescription behavior. Sustainability, 12(8), 3379. https://www.mdpi.com/696944
Dai, F., Liu, Y., Ju, M., & Yang, Y. (2021). Nursing students’ willingness to work in geriatric care: An integrative review. Nursing Open, 8(5), 2061-2077. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/nop2.726
Hsieh, P. L., & Chen, C. M. (2018). Nursing competence in geriatric/long term care curriculum development for baccalaureate nursing programs: a systematic review. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(5), 400-411. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S875572231830067X
Teófilo, T. J. S., Veras, R. F. S., Silva, V. A., Cunha, N. M., Oliveira, J. D. S., & Vasconcelos, S. C. (2019). Empathy in the nurse–patient relationship in geriatric care: An integrative review. Nursing ethics, 26(6), 1585-1600. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0969733018787228
Van Seben, R., Reichardt, L. A., Aarden, J. J., van der Schaaf, M., van der Esch, M., Engelbert, R. H., … & Wold, J. (2019). The course of geriatric syndromes in acutely hospitalized older adults: The Hospital-ADL Study. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 20(2), 152-158. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1525861018304456
Wollesen, B., Hagemann, D., Pabst, K., Schlüter, R., Bischoff, L. L., Otto, A. K., … & Fenger, A. (2019). Identifying individual stressors in geriatric nursing staff—A cross-sectional study. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(19), 3587. https://www.mdpi.com/541058
Yiqun, L. I. U. (2021). Discussion on the Application of Innovative Entrepreneurship Education Concept in the Course of Geriatric Nursing. The Theory and Practice of Innovation and Enntrepreneurship, 4(8), 62. http://www.cxcybjb.com/EN/abstract/abstract2501.shtml
