Ageism Community Nursing

Strong leadership is important for the future of nursing. With all the changes being made today, nurses need to step up and advocate for their profession and working conditions. According to the IOM (2010), nurses should “act as full partners with physicians and other health professionals in redesign and reform efforts across the health care system”. Just as the leaders before us, such as Florence Nightingale, Jean Watson and Betty Neuman, made great contributions to the change in the nursing profession, we need those leaders today to continue making contributions to improve our practice.

Ageism and stereotypes of older people can have an important impact on their physical health, mental health and overall wellbeing. Negative stereotypes of older people being dependent and decrepit can be internalized and become self-fulfilling. These ageist thoughts and stereotypes can lead to older people not seeking health care in general and to not get treatment appropriate for their illness or medical condition due to their age and not based on any other factor.

The nursing profession has evolved throughout the years, but more rapidly in most recent years. The educational roles and responsibilities, in particular, have transformed in alignment with hospital organizations, to provide a more patient-centered focus on the delivery of care. As a member of the largest healthcare profession, nurses work in diverse settings and are the main providers of healthcare services. “Nurses are well poised to meet these needs by virtue of their numbers, scientific knowledge, and adaptive capacity, and health care organizations would benefit from taking advantage of the contributions nurses can make” ("Institute of Medicine," 2010, p. 2).

It is important to understand that patients have been experiencing aging bias for a very long time. It is also evident in the medical profession as well, and one needs to do more to ensure that everyone is treated fairly especially the elderly patients. The elderly patients need to treat with the utmost respect and dignity. One needs to understand that the elderly are the ones who pave the way for the younger generation. Therefore, it is important that one takes the time out of their busy assignments to listen to what the older patients have to say and respond to them in an appropriate manner. This paper will discuss how aging has impact one nursing practice, aging bias that one has witnessed during their nursing practice, and a community plan to discuss aging bias.

Nurses have been successful advocates for improvement of the individuals, communities and indeed Nations. However much more work needs to be done to reduce health disparities, improvement of quality and safety in the health system. As well as improve access to care and formulate policies in organization that focus on the need of patients. In my opinion, nurses sometimes believe in a common mistake that nurses lack the power to be effective in the legislative arena. However, I just want to emphasize that nurses are the largest group of health care providers, and we can generate enough power to successfully reform the health care system based on numbers

Nurses are at the center of the health care industry, and are in a sole position of power. The academic area of my life involves being a pre-nursing student. In this discourse community we share collective goals such as studying, earning excellent grades, achievement into nursing school, and eventually becoming a nurse. Nurses are very important to society; their remarkable discourse community stands out in the health community. Their work provides trustworthiness to the provided of drugs and information given from doctors. Healthcare will always be needed, and with healthcare we need people who are well train in their field to be on top of their game and be knowledgeable about the healthcare. We might not always trust that our doctor knows what they are prescribing us but we can trust that our nurses have the knowledge of what they distribute. There are general fallacies among the field of nursing and several things to think about before following the path of a

When people think about nurses, many ideas come to mind. They think of the hideous old starched, white uniforms, a doctor’s handmaiden, the sexy or naughty nurse, or a torturer. The media and society have manipulated the identity and role of nurses. None of these ideas truly portray nurses and what they do. Nurses are with the patients more than the doctors. People do not realize how little they will encounter the doctor in the hospital until they are actually in the hospital. People quickly realize how important nurses are. Because nurses interact with their patients constantly, nurses are the ones who know the patients best.

Being the number one most trusted profession in the country allows nurses to truly take charge and make a difference in the policy arena Health Care Reform. (2017).

This paper seeks to expand upon the 2010 Institute of Medicine’s report on the future of nursing, leading change, advancing health and illustrating its impact on nursing education, practice and leadership. There is an ongoing transformation in the healthcare system necessitated by the need to achieve a patient centered care in the community, public, and primary care settings in contrast to previous times. Nurses occupying vital roles in the healthcare system, need improvements in the areas mentioned above to

Also, research reveals that RN’s ageist perceptions and behaviors have a negative impact to level of safety and quality of the nursing care provided to an older patient. In a critical review conducted by Brown et al. (2011) in 25 studies, older patients are exposed to under or over treatment. Examples of these in the nursing context are (1) insertion of indwelling catheters to avoid the inconvenience, exertion or pain of toileting and (2) failure to perform basic bed repositioning that contributes to increased pain suffering and pose potential risk of infection and further injury to the older patient. Also, misconception on the recuperative abilities of the older patient causes the RN to lose the ability to impartially and accurately assess

Nursing is one of the most popular professions in healthcare. To become a professional nurse, one must acquire certain level of education, whether it is at associate or baccalaureate degree level. Once becoming a nurse a number of professional standards must be maintained to stay abreast with the profession. In that respect, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its 2010 report had suggested many recommendations focusing on the future of nursing. The aim of the report is to put forth recommendations that allow nurses to “(1) ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their education and training (2) improve nursing education, (3) provide opportunities for nurses to assume leadership positions and to serve as full

“Nurses are more than caregivers in today’s healthcare settings. They are teachers, advocates and pioneers in improving healthcare. They are stepping out of the old model and taking ownership for changes in healthcare. Nurses are developing their own scientific research programs to improve patient care. They are playing a pivotal role in healthcare reform. Nurses are becoming leaders, not followers in healthcare reform.”

In November of 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health”. This special report examined the current state of nursing and changing landscape of the American healthcare system and offered recommendations for the future role nurses should play. The committee that released the report, Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, divided it into three parts. Part II of the study, focused on transforming the nursing profession in order to improve America’s healthcare system. In order to achieve this transformation, the committee recommended that nurses attain higher levels of education and training, practice to the full extent of that education and training, and assume more

Nursing has evolved over the years and it took many years for a nurse to be recognized as a profession. Since 1991, nursing is considered to be the most trusted profession in the United States. According to the American Nurses of Association (2005), "For the past 1 years, the public has voted nurses as the most honest and ethical profession in America." Not only has nursing become a trusted career, but the values and the way nurses care for their patients has helped people see them as family.

Nurses are known as the heart of health care. Being a nurse is a demanding job that requires commitment, but does not lack rewards. A fact stated by the American Association of Colleges of Nurses claims that “Nurses comprise the largest single component of hospital staff, are the primary providers of hospital patient care, and deliver most of the nation 's long-term care” (“Nursing Fact Sheet”). With many roles throughout the healthcare system as a whole, nurses are a large, very important role that interacts with every other part of the health care system. They have great qualities that not everyone has. They are highly compassionate, caring, professional, diligent and understanding individuals. A nurse experiences people at their worst and still care for patients in a way that no one else would. All these honest points prove that nurses are the most important members of the health care system because, nurses spend the most time with patients, nurses are the managers of patient care; they are teachers and are great with conflict resolution.