Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Blue collar boomers
The aging of the baby boomer generation along with the increasing longevity of life expectancies are evolving the demographics of the United States’ society. Older adults account for a much larger percentage of the population than ever before and it is expected that by 2030, one in every five Americans will be eligible for Medicare (Elder Workforce Alliance [EWA], 2012). As Americans are living longer they are also at a greater risk of chronic illness. This shift commands attention and analysis of our current health care system to better meet the needs of this growing population.
Our current health care workforce is vastly under equipped to care for the rapidly aging senior population. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that by the year 2030, the demand for geriatricians will swell to 36,000 (Herdman et al., 2008). Today there are approximately 7,000 physicians trained in geriatric care and this number is steadily declining (Herdman et al., 2008). This critical shortage requires immediate action to ensure that the elderly are receiving the adequate care that they need.
It is not sufficient to delegate elderly care to family practitioners. Though most family medicine programs address patients with chronic illness, the curriculum is not age specific. Individuals over the age of 75 report an average of three chronic health conditions and use more than 4.5 prescription drugs at any given time (Kovner, Meezey, & Harrington, 2002). These conflating comorbidities require a diverse range of skills. Trained geriatricians are adept at treating these conditions while bearing in mind the social, psychological, and biological changes that are associated with aging.
To prepare for the looming aging crisis, the United States must ...
... middle of paper ...
...lization, (Voelker, 2008). PACE addresses the three main recommendations of the Elders Workforce Alliance: the combined Medicare/Medicaid funding allows for 10% increase in payments to working staff and additional training and career advancement opportunities resulted in an outstandingly low 12% turnover rate in direct care workers (Hamrick, Kennedy-Malone & Barba, 2008).
Our current health care system is already overwhelmed by the influx of older patients. If we do not take action now to remedy this shortage, we will jeopardize the future of our aging society’s health. Elder Workforce Alliance urges action for federally mandated requirements of geriatric training in all health professions, positive working conditions for healthcare providers devoted to elder care and redesigns of healthcare delivery models to achieve higher quality of care for geriatric patients.
University of California (2006). An Aging U.S. Population and the Health Care Workforce: Factors Affecting the Need for Geriatric Care Workers. University of California, San Francisco, Center for California Health Workforce Studies.
To deal with the issue of an aging population, an awareness campaign about the health issues that commonly affect aged people should be run by the government and non-governmental agencies. In addition, awareness should be created among the young to accommodate the elderly; at home as well as at work places...
This essay will consist of different sources that explain the inappropriate behaviour an emergency Nurse’s response at handover due to a male patient who has been admitted into the Emergency Department in a dishevelled state. As a Registered Nurse assigned to care for this patient when handing over the patient’s care to another Registered Nurse, the nurse responds in an inappropriate manner; stating, ‘I really hate looking after old people – they’re all senile and they smell’. This essay will analyse the attitudes of the nurse and the beliefs that support such comments are improper thus leaving a significant impact on the performance and the nursing care for this patient.
There are profound effects of ageism that can be harmful to a patient’s overall health. Ageism can cause physicians to consistently treat older patients unequally compared to younger adults. Unequal treatment can be divided into the under-treatment of symptoms and the over-treatment of symptoms. The imbalance in how a physician would treat a geriatric patient is ageist because the older adult is not getting fair treatment in every case. Under-treatment and over-treatment are different; however, they are both equally as harmful to a patients health.
African American senior citizens face a health care crisis too. They have worked all of their lives to secure retirement, but their retirement has been threatened because of the rising cost of long-term medical care. Insurance companies have failed to provide affordable long-term care, protection that most senior citizens need. This lack of long term care and affordability has been a serious problem for the health care system. In some cities, the shortage of hospital beds is so serious that it is common for patients to stay in emergency rooms before they can be admitted to an inpatient room (Drake 109). More than one thousand hospital beds are occupied by people who could be better care for in nursing homes or through home health care (Drake 110). Of the disabled elderly 1.3 million reside in nursing homes (Drake 10). These patients are unable to perform two or more of the basic activities of daily living without assistance.
The two major components of Medicare, the Hospital Insurance Program (Part A of Medicare) and the supplementary Medical Insurance program (Part B) may be exhausted by the year 2025, another sad fact of the Medicare situation at hand (“Medicare’s Future”). The burden brought about by the unfair dealings of HMO’s is having an adverse affect on the Medicare system. With the incredibly large burden brought about by the large amount of patients that Medicare is handed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fund the system in the way that is necessary for it to function effectively. Most elderly people over the age of 65 are eligible for Medicare, but for a quite disturbing reason they are not able to reap the benefits of the taxes they have paid. Medicare is a national health plan covering 40 mi...
“Medicare and the New Health Care Law — What it Means for You.” (2010). Medicare Publications, http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/11467.pdf
...with a review of staffing ratios in one local hospital demonstrating that the therapists who worked with older adults had double the caseload of those working with younger patients (Klein & Liu, 2010, pp. 342-343). This sort of unequal treatment most definitely impacts quality of care and is a direct result of the discriminatory patterns that have been conveyed by public policy throughout history. It has also been reported that attitude is not the primary factor related to a physician’s choice not to work with the oldest-old population; it is actually related to the negative pressures instilled by the health care system (Meisner, 2012, p. 68-69). “Physicians reported less control over the care they give because of the administrative and financial pressures…” (Meisner, 2012, p. 68-69). Medicare patients require more paperwork; there is less supportive staff and
Shugarman, L. R. & Whitenhill, K. (2011). The affordable care act proposes new provisions to build a stronger continuum of care. Journal of the American Society on Aging, 35(1).
There are new challenges every year in the health care field. Research on the future of the U.S. Healthcare System is of paramount importance to the entire health care industry as well as the citizens of the U.S. To begin with, the research will discuss how challenges for future healthcare services can be enhanced by reducing the costs of medication. By creating a better quality of health care, Information technology advancements, including future funding, lower rising costs, the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The research will also discuss the challenges of market share for different ages of people populating and maintaining a skilled workplace. It will further discuss the tentative solutions to these challenges.
The excessive cost of Healthcare in American is creating concern for aging adults in need of long-term health care services and support. Long term healthcare is a largely profit driven industry that focuses on the the after affects of an event like a heart attack, accident, or a diagnosis of a chronic disease like diabetes as a primary means of treatment. Physicians prefer the traditional means of therapy where time permits for the patient consultation. The importance of
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
With the creation of Medicare in 1966 in order to expand access for the elderly to the American healthcare system, the ways in which medicine and its corresponding industries were conducted were irrevocably changed. Prior to its inception, only 65% of people over 65 actually had proper health insurance, as the elderly paid three times as much for healthcare as young people (Stevens, 1998). The private medical sector had much more control over who they would treat, how much they would charge, and more; the passing of Medicare freed up the elderly to have reasonable access to healthcare as a consequence of a lifetime of paying into the system.
Today, world’s population is aging at a very fast pace and United States is no exception to this demographic change. According to the U.S Census Bureau, senior citizens will be accounted for 21% of the American population in 2050 (Older Americans, 2012). Although living longer lives may not seem like a negative sign, living longer does not necessarily mean living healthier. Older adults of today are in need of long-term and health care services more than any generation before them (Older Americans, 2012). Because of the growing need for senior care, millions of families are facing critical decisions on how to provide care for their parents. In addition, declining birthrates may cause people to have less familial care and support as they age. To be able to provide the necessary care for senior citizens government funded long term care insurance program is needed.
What will US healthcare look like in 2050? According to Getzen (2013), trends in better health will lead to greater need for long-term care and chronic care for the aging population while correspondingly trending toward less acute illnesses (p. 438). Personalized prognostic healthcare will lead to healthier longer lives (Lawrence, 2010). Physicians will become leaders of teams within healthcare organizations rather than the independent practitioners we are familiar with today (Getzen, 2013, p. 438). Thus, the concept of the primary care physician will become a thing of the past (Lawrence, 2010).