Discussion: My Journey Within the senior discussion group that I was part of we spoke about many different topics, but the one that resonated with me and that will continue to stay with me in the future. In class we spoke about the benefits and challenges of caregiving in both formal and informal care. As I mentioned previously, the leader of the discussion group, Miss A, told us that her mother was a formal caregiver at a old age longterm facility (“The Challenges and Benefits of Caregiving”, 2015). Miss A told us of her mothers experiences as a caregiver in the particular facility that she worked at. She said that the most significant benefit of providing care was the feeling of giving back to the older generation. She expressed that the …show more content…
We spoke about how family and friends are huge support systems for care receivers. In addition to that we spoke about the negative things that were associated with being an informal caregiver (LeBlanc, 2015). Being a caregiver would require ample time and energy. Students in the class expressed that while being an informal caregiver it would be hard to maintain relationships with family members, while spending so much time with the respective care recipient (LeBlanc, 2015). It was implied that it would be a challenge to maintain proper, healthy communication with a spouse or children (LeBlanc, 2015). Among the members of my senior discussion group, based on the answers and comments provided, we disagreed with this (“The Challenges and Benefits of Caregiving”, 2015). We disagreed with the claim that outer relationships would be jeopardized by providing care to someone. In our experience of contributing to the informal care of our grandparents and seeing our parents provide care to them, we all agreed that we were still able to maintain a normal relationship with our parents and they were able to maintain their relationship as well (“The Challenges and Benefits of Caregiving”, 2015). We found that although many of the concepts that we covered in class were backed up by research, they did not apply to …show more content…
Being able to provide care to someone whether it is formal or informal, caregiving is something that is truly important to me. As mentioned previously, Tia Walker wrote, “To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honours” (Speers & Walker, 2013). This quote has a significant impact on my life as a secondary caregiver to my aging grandmother. Ever since I was born, my grandmother and grandfather had lived in the same house as my parents, my brother, and I. After my grandfather passed away, my grandmother spent more and more time taking care of my brother and I. She also had a crucial part in the upbringing of all my elder cousins. For the past 25 years she lived with my mother and it was normal for me. She was another caretaker, making us food, bathing us, playing with us, loving us. But as she grew older her physical condition declined rapidly and at one point she was confined to the four walls of her bedroom. As both my mother and father had full-time jobs during the day and my brother was sent to daycare after school, I was the only person home who had the time to care for her. From the age of fourteen I would warm up her lunch and take it up to her room for her, organize her medication, clean her floors and her bed, and massage her back. I would like to think that my family and I took good care of her. In the past two years she was moved into a nursing home where she receives 24 hour formal
Roberto, K. A., & Jarrott, S. E. (2008, January). Family Caregivers of Older Adults: A Life Span Perspective. Family Relations , 100-111.
In the case of Ann and Angus (K101,Unit 1,pp.14-19), this was an informal type of home care based on the previous and existing relationship between Ann and her step-father Angus. Liz Forbat (K101,Unit 1,p.27) interviewed 6 pairs of people involved in family care and believed that people became carer and cared for in the context of an existing relationship so the strengths and weakness of those relationships were played out in the care relationship. Ann had the right skills to make a successful care relationship with Angus as she loved and supported him and still allowed Angus to remain an individual and respected his beliefs and preferences. Though her own relationships with her other family members were under pressure and her own life had drastically changed. However, while Ann was caring for Angus she was crossing the normal boundaries of her previous...
also spend time working with the family to educate parents and other caregivers how to care
2. Bauer M, Nay R. Improving family-staff relationships in assisted living facilities: the views of family. Journal Of Advanced Nursing [serial online]. June 2011;67(6):1232-1241.
Houde, S., & Melillo, K. (2009). Caring for an aging population. Journal Of Gerontological Nursing, 35(12), 9-13. doi:10.3928/00989134-20091103-04
No one ever expects to live out his or her later years in life in a nursing home. When people are young they may not realize the obstacles in life that may cause them not to have a place or person to spend their older years in life with. Regrettably, many of the elderly are not treated with the care and respect they deserve. “Poor quality of care is endemic in many nursing homes” (Fernandez, 2011). It is the responsibility of the younger generation to make sure that the elderly are taken care of and that neglect does not happen. Nursing homes have too many patients and not enough care-givers compared to home care that has familiar one on one care. Home-based
In a review of Making Grey Gold, which is a compelling evaluation of nursing home caregiving, the reading seem more like a revelation into the unknown world of the aged and/or disabled, and not just another book. Moreover, the beginnings of the book set the stage for a real life sequence unfolding in each sentence, and each chapter to the very end. The effectiveness of the book may bring current policies for nursing home care and procedures into question; however the book is more appropriate for adults considering nursing homes as an option, adult children in charge of their parents care and the staff that are employed or pending employment in such an institution.
Sturdy, D. (2007) Indignity in care: are you responsible? Nurs Older People. 2007; 19(9): 9.
Adults are self-motivated learners. Adult’s great desire to learn is brought about by immediate need to solve practical problems. Adult learners decide what to learn, the need to learn, how to learn and when to learn. This concept applies to the topic of providing care to the elderly and resolving practical problems. Adults want to learn how to solve problems and why they are doing it (which is improving the emotional, psychological and physical wellbeing of loved ones).As problem centered learners adult care givers take responsibility in learning ways to solve this
Primary caregivers are given an opportunity to take care of their loved ones; however, this job comes with a lot of stress and its consequences (Tsai, 2003). Primary caregivers take care of those with a chronic illness such as a family member or friend, are given a task that is so immense that it induces a lot of stress. In the previous decades, many research articles have developed studies which focused on stressors that were associated with the task of being the primary caregiver; yet, a theory surrounding this topic has not been developed until the early 2000s. Tsai (2003) developed the Theory of Caregiver Stress based on the Roy Adaptation Model to identify the caregiver’s response, perceptions, and adaptations to the stress and burden that primary caregiver’s experience.
With each passing day, new challenges for nurses are created. As of 2011, the baby boomer generation (those born from 1946 to 1964) turned 65. Between 1946 and 1964, approximately 76 million babies were born. Now that they are rising in age, these older adults are starting to need more hospitalization because of age-related issues. With the growing number of older adults seeking healthcare, there is a shortage in the number of nurses willing to take on the responsibility of caring for them (Hartman-Stein & Potkanowicz, 2009). I want to make sure that these adults never have a sense of loneliness because of their age. I also want to make sure that they have the same standards of living that they did before they got sick. This leads me into another reason of why I want to be a nurse. I think the world needs me. I want to feel that I belong and, in a sea of older adults needing healthcare, I think I will. I want to make a difference to those who feel that no one cares about them. When my grandmother was very sick, she needed all the help that my father and I could give her. She had a voice box so she couldn’t talk, pneumonia so she was very weak, and she could barely walk on her own. I knew ...
Within the elderly community, the existence of activities and interaction with others creates an impact on the elderly daily living. As being a provider in a home health facility, there has been a substantial amount of complaints from family members due to the lack of socializing by their loved ones. When dealing with quality care of the elderly, relationships is a major form of communication that allows each individual the opportunity to express their emotions, and continue his/her consistency of motor skills. Relationships with others are normally formed in senior citizen centers, senior communities and/or with home health
referred to as the recipient of care, this statement lacks true meaning; reducing person to a single machine-like object. They are first and foremost human beings whose care involves the whole individual. They exist within a matrix of family, caregivers, significant others, and communities. In my practice, human-centered care is central to the articulation of my personal nursing philosophy. It is one that treats the patient as an integrated individual of body, soul, and spirit, instead of simply treating their illness or health concerns in isolation. It requires me to stand in their shoes in order to convey an understanding of their situation. As such, they should not be reduced to simply generalizations, but should be cared for in their
Limited mobility is a factor that creates a situation where people once social butterflies become home bound, creating a need for increased care (Berger, 2014). As age increases, more support may be needed creating a situation where a nurse would need to support my aunt in the care for my grandmother. Respite care and/or some form of assisted living may be on the horizon; however, as of right now my grandmother is in her home where she wants to be with the ability to stay for the unforseen
Inside the home you have the children- who if are grown- are also under pressure to get an education, job, home of their own, and maybe even pressures to settle down and have a family. This can be added to if the child is still living at home, this can add the social stigma of not being able to make it on their own or provide form themselves. If there are parents living in the home it can be stressful on them having to make the transition from mother or father to being treated as one of the children. They can lose their sense of independence and feel as if they are a burden to the family. As you continue to look in the home you may see a strain on the marriage of the care takers. Questions such as “Why can we take in your mother but mine is getting put in a nursing home” or “your children get to see your parents every day, why can we not go visit mine once in a while?” It’s easy to see how tensions can rise and this situation can become a stressor within the marriage. Another possible side effect of becoming a multi-generation care giver is that it will take up much of your time- especially if there are extenuating circumstances such as an illness. Having to take people back and forth between doctors can use up personal day in a hurry, leaving families to decide if giving up a job is in their best interest. Since the start of the recession, the number of working women 45 to 54 has dropped more than 3.5 percent, a rough one million women, several of them leaving to care for a parent (Searcey, 2014). This, once again, can cause strain on a marriage when you lose one income and the other spouse becomes the primary bread