The various meanings of aging
Some studies affirm that aging signifies loss, transformation, and the inability to do anything. Becoming elderly means having lived many years, becoming less energetic, taking more medication, getting wrinkles, and becoming forgetful. There are notions that when individuals become elderly, their dignity diminishes, and that aging means that one requires the assistance of other people. Nevertheless, since some of the elderly people have the ability to carry out many activities, they have a feeling that they are not yet old and consider age as only a number. Nonetheless, the consideration of age as just a number may not be properly attributable to the negative consideration of aging. Some of the elderly individuals do not like to be called old due to the off-putting insights associated with aging (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2014). Though some of such individuals may tend to think that they are not old, approximately 50% of them confess that they have no choice when old age gradually comes. Furthermore, they also have a feeling that aging means gaining more knowledge and having privileges, for example, senior price cuts, hubs, inexpensive housing, and support groupings. Additionally, some studies articulate that aging means becoming wiser and that an elderly individual is similar to a walking library due to a great number of stories, countless experiences, and knowledge they have gained in their years of existence.
Gerontological nursing and its application to community nursing?
Gerontological (geriatric) nursing denotes the specialty of nursing is associated with the aging population. Gerontological nurses function in partnership with the aged people, family members, and communities with the purpose of promoting healthy aging, maximizing operation, and increasing the value of life. Geriatric nurses are instructed on the best means of treating and understanding the normally intricate mental and physical well-being of elderly individuals. They strive to assist their patients, safeguard their health and tackle changes in their psychological and physical capacities for the aged people to have autonomous and active lives as long as possible. Geriatric nurses concentrate on preventative care for aged people because the elderly individuals are at a high risk of illnesses such as osteoporosis and cancer to mention a few. Geriatric nurses, as well, assist the elderly and their family members to address some health problems that may arise. Geriatric nurses take part in rehabilitation, nursing homes, community health organizations, and hospice facilities with the aim of caring for the bedridden aged patients, the ones with mental disorders, and those in pain (Heller, Fisher, Marks, & Hsieh, 2014). The majority of the aged individuals have health problems that do not necessitate hospitalization but have to be addressed with medicines, nutritional changes, application of special equipment (for instance walker or glucometer), daily workouts, and other activities. On this note, geriatric nurses assist in designing and explaining the medical procedures to the aged and their family members. Hence, they offer crucial support to the aging population by connecting family units to community resources in order to assist them in caring for the aged people.
The aging statistics based on the 2010 national census and goals based on healthy people 2020
The aging population will keep on rising considerably in the future. According to the 2010 national census, the population aged 65 years old and more has augmented from thirty-five million in 2000 to forty million in 2010 (representing a fifteen percent rise) and is expected to reach fifty-five million in 2020. The aging population will multiply between 2010 and 2030 after the baby boom cohort reaches the age of 65 (LĂłpez-OtĂn, Blasco, Partridge, Serrano, & Kroemer, 2013). The people over sixty-five years old were approximately 13% of the population in 2010, but their proportion is anticipated to rise to 19% by 2030. Healthy People 2020 represents ten-year national goals for bettering the health of the residents of the US. Some of the goals have been executed to assess the influence of the prevention endeavors, enhance teamwork across communities and regions, and authorize people towards ensuring knowledgeable health choices. The goals set particular targets to assist direct nations, communities, and professionals in establishing and assessing programs and strategies that facilitate healthy aging. The target goals of Healthy People 2020 for the aging population are planned to enhance their well-being. Some of the target goals encompass increasing the percentage of the elderly that employ the Welcome to Medicare benefit and increasing the number of aged people that are conversant with major medical preventive services.
Main community issues affecting the elderly population
One community issue affecting the elderly population is comorbidity, which makes the management of diseases difficult. For example, community nursing could target depression and obesity for effective management of diabetes. The second issue is the sedentary lifestyle of the aging population despite the extensive gains of physical exercise (Koen & Yonelinas, 2014). Community nursing could employ behaviorally anchored exercise interventions devised for the elderly to enhance their participation in workouts and self-assurance in the capacity to take part in physical activities. The third issue is that because of the deterioration in the biological preserve, the potential of frail, aging people to endure and handle psychological and physiological problems is inadequate. For such people, community nurses could offer subacute care, in addition to post-hospital rehabilitation.
References
Cavanaugh, J., & Blanchard-Fields, F. (2014). Adult development and aging. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Heller, T., Fisher, D., Marks, B., & Hsieh, K. (2014). Interventions to promote health: Crossing networks of intellectual and developmental disabilities and aging. Disability and health journal, 7(1), 24-32.
Koen, J. D., & Yonelinas, A. P. (2014). The effects of healthy aging, amnestic mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease on recollection and familiarity: A meta-analytic review. Neuropsychology Review, 24(3), 332-354.
LĂłpez-OtĂn, C., Blasco, M. A., Partridge, L., Serrano, M., & Kroemer, G. (2013). The hallmarks of aging. Cell, 153(6), 1194-1217.