The purpose of this paper is to illuminate and discuss healthcare vulnerabilities of the elderly rural population in Baker County, Florida and describe how the nursing profession can address these problems. Rural health has been a complex and multifaceted challenge for government and healthcare practitioners. The elderly who live alone in the county suffer from low socioeconomic status, low health literacy rates, declining cognitive and physical health and lack of healthcare facilities. The health status of this vulnerable group is impacted by rural culture and social values, healthcare policy and funding affecting rural healthcare facilities, distance and lack of transportation, and health literacy. Method A review of current nursing literature, state health department online resources and textbooks were searched to identify health care policy and health disparities affecting rural elderly populations. Online CINAHL database and search engines such as Bing and Google were used with search terms like as “rural elderly”, “health disparity”, “vulnerable populations” “Baker County Florida” and “Northeast Florida”. Additionally, the Florida Department of Health and Healthy People 2020 websites along with nursing textbooks, nursing websites and non-nursing sources were used. Results 2010 Census statistics for Baker County indicates a population of 27,115 residents, of which 3,226 or 11.9% are age 65 or older (Census 2010). Of these individuals, 10.3% live below the poverty line and are lacking access to healthcare. Surprisingly, when the statistics are subdivided by ethnicity it reveals that 25% of the African American elderly in Baker County live below the poverty line. The rate of dementia among older adults in 2011 was 10.4% and... ... middle of paper ... ...census.gov/qfd/states/12/12003.htm Creasia, J., & Friberg, E. (2011). Conceptual foundations: The bridge to professional nursing practice. (5th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby. Janney, C. (Jan 24, 2014). Small rural hospitals face big changes under the affordable care act. Retrieved from http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140125/NEWS/140129435 Healthy People 2020. (2014). Retrieved from www.healthypeople.gov Community Dashboard: Baker County. (2014.) Retrieved from http://www.nefloridacounts.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=NS-Indicator&file=indicator&iid=8387441 Mbemba, Gisèle, Gagnon, Marie-Pierre., Paré, Guy. & Côté, Jose (2013.) Interventions for supporting nurse retention in rural and remote areas: an umbrella review. Human resources for health. doi:10.1186/1478-4491-11-44. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3847170/pdf/1478-4491
Touhy, T. A., & Jett, K. (2012). Toward healthy aging: Human needs & nursing response (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier/Mosby.
During one of my undergraduate courses, “Community and Population Health”, I completed a paper on my community and access to healthcare. During the research and community outreach performed to meet the goals of the paper, my eyes were opened to the plight of small communities in regards to access to quality healthcare. This plight has become my passion, and has formed the basis for my vision of the Family Nurse Practitioner role.
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.
Hood, J. (2010). Conceptual bases of professional nursing. (7th ed. ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Taking care of the individuals that are getting older takes many different needs. Most of these needs cannot be given from the help of a family. This causes the need of having to put your love one into a home and causing for the worry of how they will be treated. It is important for the family and also the soon to be client to feel at home in their new environment. This has been an issue with the care being provided for each individual, which has lead to the need of making sure individuals have their own health care plan.
Long-term health care consists of personal medical, and social services rendered to elders with chronic indispositions. These types of services are carried out through several different means, such as nursing homes, home health care, and respite care. The focus on long-term care is to provide an environment assisting with treatments plans, personal up keep and rehabilitation. As the largest part of our growing population reaches retirement age, several new questions and issues have arose. Financially, long term health has is an ever growing concern of the elder population and those who have accepted the financial burden. A large portion of the economy struggles with the cost of the ever rising prices of health care. The economy has been hindered with financial difficulty and it has had several implications on the ways we spend our money. For some of the baby boomers, it has left them with no choice but to continue to work in order to provide. For others, it has left them no option but to live with family members or seek assistants elsewhere. Income has evolved into a stressor for elders planning retirement.
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Walker, L. O. & Avant, K. C. (2011). Strategies for theory construction in nursing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
As a caregiver family, Advocates for Aging at Home took root in 2006, when we witnessed first-hand the pitfalls in the healthcare system when caring for our aging parents, and their ongoing care needs after a sudden illness and hospital stay; expanding the role of our family members to monitoring their status, or outpatient home care for a condition that might otherwise be treated in an in-patient setting. Eliminating frequently unseen or unconsidered barriers to health at home by utilizing advances in technology, assistive equipment, architectural modifications, and community resources, home health care and non-medical home care.
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. (2011). Theoretical Basis for Nursing (3 ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Every twenty-four hours, there are ten thousand people in the United States turning sixty-five years old. Presently, there are forty-eight million people that are 65 or older, but in the year 2030 that number will grow to an alarming seventy-three million. Additionally, by the year 2035 those that are 85 and older will go from the current six million to twelve million Americans. As the number of older Americans increases, so does the need for competent and compassionate gerontological nurses (Cleave et al., 2016). This post will focus on what the term gerontological nurse means, the reasons why few nursing students choose gerontological nursing as a specialty, and what is needed to increase interest
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.