This posting is about the elderly and their reminiscence of their own life. Throughout the post, I will discuss some of the difficulties I have experienced in providing care for the elderly. Furthermore, I will describe my own thoughts and feelings about the required video and what changes I will include in my nursing practice after watching the video.
All living things age, it is an unavoidable process. It is associated with cognitive, emotional, and physical transformation (Sarma & Bhagawati, 2015). According to Sarma & Bhagawati (2015), there is an increase in the population of older adults worldwide. Very often they feel isolated and neglected from their own family and friends. As people get older they become more forgetful, many have dementia that made them loose their ability to comprehend the world around them. They live in their own reality and remembering the past may help boost their life satisfaction and decrease depression. Elderly tell the stories to younger generations, it is a tradition that has been around for a long time. By storytelling, older adults are able to connect to younger generations, and it helps the younger ones to understand the person that now cannot remember their own children. Reminiscence is remembering the past and bringing old memories back to life (Lindinger-Sternart, 2013).
The first encounter that I had with the elderly is with my grandparents. They lived on a farm and had seven children and fourteen grandchildren. As grandchildren, we were all close in age and we used to spend summers at their house. Those are some of the fondest memories that I have. They used to tell us stories about their past and about our parents when they were younger. I remember seeing their eyes lighting up every ti...
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...r past I will try to be there and listen. As I previously have stated, sometimes we are all they have, often our patients may not have any families or friends that come and visit them, so it is natural that they feel lonely.
In conclusion, as nurses we know part of our job is not only to take care of the physical needs of our patients, but of their psychological needs as well, and listening to them may help them feel less isolated and depressed.
Reference
Sarma, P., & Bhagawati, B. (2015). Geriatric care through lifelong learning: A humanistic approach. Middle East Journal of Age & Ageing, 12(3), 27-32.
Lindinger-Sternart, S. J. (2013). The life reflection and consequences of older adults ' relationships: An empirical study. Adultspan Journal, 12(2), 80-90.
Tabloski, P. A. (2014). Gerontological Nursing (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, Pearson Education.
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Touhy, T. A., & Jett, K. (2012). Toward healthy aging: Human needs & nursing response (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier/Mosby.
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.
older adults. Journal of Nursing Education, 47(6), 269-271. Retrieved from CINAHL Plus with Full Text database.
In the few minutes that it takes to do a physical assessment, a breathing treatment, a bath, or a gastric tube feeding, we could engage in 5 to 10 minutes of eye to eye contact, therapeutically reminiscing with our elders, and in doing so could possibly influence the health of our patients profoundly. With the collective efforts among health care workers, it could eventually turn out to be a measurable cause and effect when thousands of injuries that occur every year, as a result of the many effects of Depression begin to show a significant decrease because of our joint efforts of Reminiscence therapy. Then we would see it as a preventive safety measure just as important as administering the right medication to the right patient. Perhaps then we would never have to face regret of dismissing the benefits of such a therapy that could have been bestowed upon our elders (who needed the reminiscing in the last stage of their life in order to find inner satisfaction and ward off depression). Let it not be said: Benefits that were never brought into fruition, because it simply wasn’t facilitated by us, their Health Care
Touhy, T.A., Freudenberger J.K., Ebersole, P., & Hess, P.A. (2012). Ebersole & Hess' toward healthy aging: human needs & nursing response. Toronto: Mosby Inc. Retrieved from http://evolve.elsevier.com/staticPages/i_index.html
“A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless, are the true gold mines of a culture.” –Abraham Joshua Heschel. I decided to do my senior project on becoming a certified nursing assistant because I believe CNA’s go beyond their limits for their patients. This is in honor of all CNA’s who work hard to care for the sick and elderly.
Houde, S., & Melillo, K. (2009). Caring for an aging population. Journal Of Gerontological Nursing, 35(12), 9-13. doi:10.3928/00989134-20091103-04
Canada health care system is struggling to provide quality care to the growing number of older adults in our acute and longterm care settings. This paper is a self-reflective analysis on caring for the older adult and how communication, clinical skills, and proper hygiene are essential in providing high quality care to older clients . This paper will help determine my weakness and strengths, so I can continue to grow as a Lisence Practical nurse and help Canada’s health care system.
Older adults are a very knowledgeable population and have had a lot of life experiences. As people age, things start to change physically, mentally, and socially. It’s important to understand the process of aging, so that older adults can be taken care of properly. I interviewed P.R. who is a 71-year-old male that lives alone in his home. P.R. is a retired coal miner, and is currently living off his social security and savings. He lives close to both his daughter and son, who frequently help him out with things that are needed. P.R. was able to give me a lot of insight about specific challenges that he has experienced in his life that is associated with aging. I will be discussing challenges that P.R experienced physically, mentally,
Giving verbal instructions, guidance and reassurance to mental health patients is essential for nurses. Teaching patients how to cope with their mental disorders helps them feel more empowered and in control, in a situation where they have very little control over their
This is because, conversing empathetically can lead to better outcomes as it can have positive effects on client’s anxiety, pain, and hopelessness (Williams & Stickley, 2010). As well, it enables clients to cooperate more effectively towards treatments (Arnold & Boggs, 2015). Being empathetic promotes a humanistic interaction where the main objective is to make one feel understood and appreciated. By gathering data through the client’s words and actions, the nurse can use this information to carefully construct an appropriate response that will make a client feel that his or her feelings have been acknowledged (Monica, 1979). Furthermore, for a nurse to efficiently demonstrate empathy, nurses must be aware of their own biases and avoid bringing these personal views into the health care setting as these can negatively affect the client (Williams & Stickley,
Interpersonal communication within the field of nursing is imperative in all areas to deliver a holistic positive outcome in patient care. Specifically, active listening, questioning with intent and reflective feedback ascertain an understanding of a patient’s health, illness, and healthcare. Active listening allows the patient to convey their concerns and presents the nurse with an understanding of the patient when implementing a personalised care plan. Questioning with intent builds an appreciation of the situation, and reflective feedback promotes improvements to enrich work ethics of the nursing cohort. Listening actively involves many different styles whereby information is gathered through verbal and non-verbal communication. Questioning
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
The present paper illustrates my reflections regarding the article “Memory and Aging: Selected Research Directions and Application Issues”, the third lecture “Psychosocial Issues”, and our class discussion. All of them brought up important issues regarding the psychological health of older adults, however, one theme was common across them: the role of social interaction on cognition and emotion.
At the age of 36, mom decided to return back to college to obtain her nursing degree. This wasn’t a hard decision for her to make. The April before she enrolled in school my great grandmother passed away. This major dilemma played a major role in mom’s returning back to school. She had taken care of my great grandmother for months before she passed away, and decided that she wanted to make an impact on the lives of geriatrics.