Effects Of Ageism On Ageing

Ageism and the Negative Stereotypes About Aging Today’s society highly values attractiveness, energy, and independence. Therefore, old age tends to be devalued in many ways based on stereotypes portrayed by the media and personal biases. Regardless, aging is a natural process that happens to everyone in society. With that said, this becomes a challenge for young nurses. What does one think of when hearing of a 87 year old patient? Does one automatically think the patient will be confused, agitated, very frail, very ill, or dependent? Many do. This is where nurses need to become more aware and change their views. Working in a hospital myself, I tend to assume the same. I also hear a lot of people who are surprised when they discover their patient

This decline is not related to acute illnesses but to the adverse effects of modern therapy and current hospital practices, which are designed for younger people.” (Huang, Larente, Morais, 2011)

Why Is the Health of Older Adults Important? The goal of the Healthy People 2020 initiative is to “improve the health, function, and quality of life of older adults.” (Healthy People, 2015) Regardless of age, everyone is a unique individual, with the same range of values, gifts and flaws as any other person. Young nurses need to help aging people keep their autonomy as long as possible by not doing things for them that they can do for themselves. As nurses, our ultimate goal should be to expand training and research opportunities in this area and eliminate ageism in all facets. “In the past institutional settings such as hospitals and nursing centers often treated older adults as objects rather than independent, dignified people. The time has come for nurses to recognize and address ageism by questioning prevailing negative attitudes and stereotypes and reinforcing the realities of aging as they care for older adults in all care settings.” (Korem, 2013, p.