There are changes in the demographic as the population grows older, the number of older adult’s increases and thus, there is an increase of proportion of patients that are older adults for nurses to take care of (Wells, Y., Foreman, P., Gething, L., & Petralia, W., 2004). The nurses are there to assist and support the older adults in achieving wellness within their situation through empowering the clients (Touhy, et al (2012). Caring for older adults is important as there is an increase in population with deteriorating health. When caring for a client it is important to incorporate Jean Watson’s caring theories and Carative Factors to help influence and support the care. She encourages nurses to co-participate within the caring process by establishing unity and trust between the nurse and client. First, this paper will explain a situation in where I cared for an older adult and it will then introduce Jean Watson’s lower order needs, specifically the need for activity and how it relates to the older adult I cared for. Lastly, this paper will explain the nursing interventions I implemented to meet the lower order need, with a discussion of Carative Factor #4 relating to the client.
Patient Description
During my second week at clinical, I cared for a 74 year old female. Mrs. X came to Lake Ridge Health Whitby Hospital due to a right CVA and she was suffering from locked in syndrome. In addition to this Mrs. X’s medical history included, constipation, depression, anxiety, anemia, hypothyroidism, hyperlipidemia, a coccyx wound and dysphasia. Due to the clients diagnosis of locked in syndrome, she was unable to move or communicate verbally because of paralysis of most muscles (Palmieri, 2009). Mrs. X was aware and awake, but was only...
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...ursing 39(7), 22. doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000357264.89334.a0
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO). (2005). Best practice guideline (BPG): Risk assessment and prevention of ulcers. Retrieved from http:// www.rnao.org
Touhy, T.A., Jett, K. F. Boscart, V., & McCleary, L. (2012). Ebersole and Hess’ gerontological nursing and health aging (1st Canadian ed.). Toronto: Elsevier Canada. (Chapter 10 p. 164)
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Watson, J. (2008). Nursing: The philosophy and science of caring (revised edition). Boulder,
Colorado: University press of Colorado. (p. 77, 159, 160, 171)
Wells, Yvonne., Foreman, Peter., Gething, Lindsay., Petralia, Walter. (2004). Nursing Attitudes
Toward Aging and Older Adults. Journal of Gerontological Nursing. 30 (19) 5-13.
Another focus for change is that over the years the demand for home and community care over hospital care has continued to grow, as stated by the Queens nursing institute “Recent health policy points to the importance of improving and extending services to meet the health and care needs of an increasingly older population and provide services which may have previously been provided in hospital within community settings”.
older adults. Journal of Nursing Education, 47(6), 269-271. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.
When a member of someone’s family goes ill or is no longer able to live on their own and take care of themselves; it is up to the family members to decide the best course of action for them to get the best care that they can. There several different options that need to be considered when looking at long-term care facilities for older adults. In this paper, I will briefly discuss two of the most common options that people choose between when looking at long-term care options. One option is home care and the other is assisted and/or independent living facilities. These two options are some of the best ways to take care of ill elders.
The reduction of pressure ulcer prevalence rates is a national healthcare goal (Lahmann, Halfens, & Dassen, 2010). Pressure ulcer development causes increased costs to the medical facility and delayed healing in the affected patients (Thomas, 2001). Standards and guidelines developed for pressure ulcer prevention are not always followed by nursing staff. For example, nurses are expected to complete a full assessment on new patients within 24 hours at most acute-care hospitals and nursing homes (Lahmann et al., 2010). A recent study on the causes of pressure ulcer de...
In each nation one urban intense care hospital setting was chosen to take part. A clinical site in Ireland connected with formal organized risk assessment utilizing the Maelor Score while in Norway they utilized clinical judgment alone. Firstly, they started with data collection, which was about making checklist data related to pressure ulcer risk assessment, prevention practices and patient education. This particular checklist was utilized effectively within the Irish health-care setting and commonplace to the research group. All patients were estimated for risk using the Braden pressure ulcer risk assessment tool.22 PUs were assessed using the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (EPUAP ) pressure ulcer grading system.23 In Norway, five nurses were given a half-day instruction session. These sessions associated to pressure ulcer risk assessment, grading, propagation, and information accumulation with reference to the checklist utilized for this study. Information were gathered more than one day in each
The Social Security Act of 1935 was established in order to help Americans receive benefits when they retire or in the event that they are not able to work anymore. All Americans who work pay taxes, which in turn are put into the Social Security system. When this act was passed, it was meant to supplement a person's income, when reaching the age of retirement. This money would add to their pensions or savings. Many retirees now depend on it as their only source of income. In the past, the majority of jobs had pensions and the employee contributed to it. In modern society, pensions are no longer the norm in jobs as they were 50 years ago. Blue collar jobs are more than likely to not have any sort of pension plan as opposed to white collar jobs. Not all people receive the same amount of money when they retire. Depending on the salary you earned when working, that will determine how much you will receive in your monthly Social Security check. A person who has worked at low paying jobs in their lifetime will barely receive enough in Social Security. Many of our elderly in the United States barely receive enough money that many elderly live below or just barely above the poverty level.
Strickland, D. (1996). Applying Watson’s theory for caring among elders. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 23(1), 32 – 40.
The book is an exceptional reference for any individual who care for the elderly; it provides insight on how to arran...
Potter, P.A., Perry, A.G., Stocker, P.A., & Hall. (2017). Fundamentals of Nursing (9th ed.). St. Louis, MO:
Kick, Ella. "Overview: Health Care and the Aging Population: What Are Today's Challenges?" The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. N.p., n.d. Web.
As one ages, the body accumulates a myriad of multidimensional changes in the realms of physical, biological, psychological, and social alterations. These changes can manifest from a deficiency in one area or an abundance in another. According to the student nurse, these changes can be functional, potentially dysfunctional, or dysfunctional based on Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns. The student nurse conducts a similar interview and assessment process with each patient to gather subjective and objective data related to the health and wellness of the individual. The function of the student nurse’s interview process using Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns reflects the purpose of the interviewing an elderly individual in the community. The purpose of this paper is to emulate the nursing process by ranking the priority of care for the identified health problems using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
An important step to decrease an ageist attitude is to take a step back and recognize biases and preconceived ideas that one has about older adults (DeBrew, 2015). Recognizing biases in combination with furthering one’s education about the effects of aging and the specific needs of older adults will help increase compassionate care. To allow for effective interventions it is important that the nurse understand that illness and infection manifest differently in older adults than they do in the younger population (DeBrew, 2015). In addition, through ethnographic study it was found that when nurses spend time doing activities with older adults it helps strengthen relationships and sense of community between care providers and elderly patients (DeBrew, 2015). According to the article, “occupational therapists who worked with older adults felt ‘stigmatized’ by their peers because their work was viewed as less challenging and requiring less skill and intellect than caring for other populations” (DeBrew, 2015). To promote compassionate patient care it is important that nurses and other professionals get support from their peers to confirm that their work is not insignificant and looked down upon. Finally, include the older adult while creating the plan of care to show them that they are a valued part of their healthcare
America is a country where everyone is free to live however they like, but it is possible for some people to live a happy life, if no one is around to take care of them. Nearly three hundred million people reside in the America, and out of those three hundred million populations, senior citizens make a 12 percent of the entire population. A senior citizen is commonly known as a person who is over the age of 65 and living on retirement, or known as social security benefits (Census Bureau). Ever since Franklin D. Roosevelt implied the act of Social Security in 1935, seniors are regularly provided a financial help, but seniors, along with financial help, seeks also accompany of someone who can look after them. Because of constantly growing needs of senior citizens, government as well as many non-profit organizations is working on helping seniors. Therefore I decided to research on this particular issue in my community, and I found that 64.5% of seniors are living alone in metropolitan area of Atlanta.
Touhy, T. & Jett, K. (2012). Ebersole & Hess’ Toward healthy aging human needs &
“The secret that all old people share is that you really haven’t changed in seventy or