When it comes to my perception on the older adult, I somewhat contradict myself quite often. Sometimes I view them in a way that I am not proud of, but I view them as needy, pestering and somewhat incompetent. In another perception I see them as sweet, caring, knowledgeable and willing. My two different perceptions come from my work place. I work at Charles Regional Medical Center on a Medical/Surgical/Pediatrics floor, where I see older adults more than any other age range. My first perception of the older adults comes from seeing careless patients who never took care of themselves medically, and who still do not seem to care about their rapid medical decrease. I feel like they have created some of these issues for themselves and would rather
After spending an afternoon interviewing my elderly father-in-law, I gained insight into how he perceives the aging process and the impact on the quality of his life. First, and foremost he viewed aging in a very positive and healthy manner. He believes that a positive attitude assists in accepting physical and psychosocial changes and enjoyed the fact that he and his wife are both physically fit and cognitively alert. He felt confident that advances made in health care and the quality of their lives would continue to be empowering. He enjoys the benefits of being a senior citizen including discounted travel, free education, and other incentives marketed towards seniors. He expressed a sense of well-being with respect to the numerous
The debate topic centered on what is more important in aging mental or physical health. On one side of the debate is the premise that mental health is the key factor in aging successful. The opposing side holds that physical health is the key factor. Both arguments confirm that the relationship is reciprocal but they differ in regards to which one occurs first. That is, does mental health cause physical decline or vice versa.
After spending an afternoon interviewing my elderly father-in-law, I gained insight into how he perceives the aging process and the impact on the quality of his life. First, and foremost he viewed aging in a very positive and healthy manner. He believes that a positive attitude assists in accepting physical and psychosocial changes and enjoyed the fact that he and his wife are both physically fit and cognitively alert. He felt confident that advances made in health care and the quality of their lives would continue to be empowering. He enjoys the benefits of being a senior citizen including discounted travel, free education, and other incentives marketed towards seniors. He expressed a sense of well-being with respect to the numerous
The aging of society has not significantly changed our perceptions of the elderly. Ageism is widespread in Western societies (Dionigi, et al, 2011). Older adults are seen as boring, grumpy irritable, weak, debilitated, mournful, and most significantly cognitively. These stereotypes which are negative can be allowed by the aged themselves negative self-stereotyping (Dionigi, et al, 2011) and are as well found among specialized caregivers (e.g., Cowan, Fitzpatrick, Roberts, & While,2004). The image in relation to which older adults are more ineffectual than younger adults is predominantly dominant. Nevertheless, in a variety of domains, older adults are inclined to have analogous performances and at times even do better than younger
In this reflective essay, I shall be representing a critical understanding of the Risks in view of, an older adult, as an alternative area of practice, to that of my own nursing Adult field. The scenario takes place, within a clinical acute setting, with following the use of Driscolls Reflective Model (1994), Driscoll uses a framework to reflect on the scenario, What? Happened, So, What? How you were feeling at the time, and Now, What? Actions to be taken. However, to maintain confidentiality, which is set by the (NMC) Nursing and midwifery council (2008) all names of places and patients names have been changed and I shall be using the pseudonym Mrs M, for an 85-year older patient.
“Older people are likely to be seen as a burden and a drain on resources, rather than as a resource themselves”, this being a common interpretation many have on elderly because of Ageism (Irving, 2015, p. 72). The term “Ageism” was developed in 1969 by Robert M. Butler, the director of the District of Columbia Advisory Committee on Aging (SOURCE). Ageism, meaning, the prejudice and discrimination against older people (Macionis, 2014, pg.104), has been an un-noticed growing stereotype. When many think of becoming an elderly they mostly think of the things you can’t do any more. This point exactly has been the driving force of Ageism’s growth. Originally the term was introduced by Butler because of his partnership with the NCHA (housing) and
Older adults are the ones that tend to be most forgotten by being pushed away into a nursing home, where their families seldom visit, or tend to be overlooked and bypassed. A majority of American’s assume that just because a person is much older, means that they do not have the same problems as the younger generations, however, that is false. Older people can have the same problems has everyone else, they can have depression, they can have a sex drive, and have an increase chance of being mistreated and abused. When discussing elder mistreatment, people are sometimes taken back that elders can in fact be mistreated. Senior citizens have a great change of being abused because of the type of care-giver they have, the health issues that have put
In my late adulthood, i want to take off from work and voluntier in the hospital as a nursing. I also want to continue eating health food: vegs, fruits and white meat. I want to be active as much as i can. I want to have friends that i can talk and share my experiances. I want to raise my grand children as i reaised my chilren. I want to be a part of my family and help them when they need me. I do not worry about the way i am going to die and who is going to take care of me. As long i life i have a faith that my children will be there for me. My culture teaches the parents should be taking care as they took good care of you when you were young. I have strong belief that i will get care through my family.
Simple misconceptions of the elder sexuality are often made based on what others say, lack of knowledge, and the medias representation. As stated in chapter 11, Americans live in a youth-oriented, consumer-based society, essentially meaning that only the young are beautiful and sexy and we should fear aging because of the negative side effects that come with old age. Although, we eventually become victims of our own negative views of the elderly and I don’t think the misconceptions of the elderly will change anytime soon, partially because the media would need to change the way they portray how we think the elderly act and behave, and portray them more realistically. A majority of the elder population is at least interested in sex later in
Thanks for your post and positive attitude on aging. Since the topic of ageism was introduced, I have tried to become observant of myself and my patients. As a busy nurse, I found myself getting impatient in dealing with my older patients with cognitive impairment. Not that I was judging them, but it was because I still have a million things waiting for me to accomplish in my shift, with little of my time left. Thankfully, my patient remained jaunty without realizing my irritation. And so, I realized how easy for me to set aside older adults’ needs because of my set, hectic schedule. I started thinking about my aging parents and the last conversation we had. Then, I remembered my sickly, aged neighbor too. True, I just delivered
As society progresses, prejudices pertaining to ageism arise on multiply fronts, which stems from simply an ignorant societal state of mind. This is especially turn when it comes to younger generation. When looking at prejudices of older adults it often comes down to assumptive limitations that given to an older age group and they become seen as a burden to society, which is
Assessing and planning care of the elderly is important in enabling the older adult to have the best quality of life in their later years. Understanding their views on living day to day with what they hold dear, will help in planning care for the older person. In this paper, I will interview an older adult and describe various details as well as cultural relations surrounding my interviewed individual. I will perform functional assessments using the Tinetti, Katz, Home Safety, and Barthel tools, which will be included in the Appendix. I will compare any age-related changes and identify more than six preliminary issues that need to be addressed. Lastly, I will propose more than three alterations and
To describe the older adult I we have to realize that not everyone ages at the same rate. We have people
Elders from diverse cultures view older adults and the aging process differently. Factors such as culture, ethnicity, race and personal beliefs can influence the view of aging. For example, in the Okinawan or Asian culture
Ageism is a term that refers to a set of beliefs about age. Ageism is a type of stereotyping that relate to prejudgment or discrimination against any particular age group and is viewed as a negative perspective about the elderly. Ageism supposes that the elderly is no longer able to contribute to society in a meaningful way, and drain the broader society’s resources because of a continuous decline in health and well-being. (Women 's Health Encyclopedia, 2011) Studies like the Census Bureau statistics challenge this belief. Reports revealed that a rather small number of the elderly are in nursing homes, and that these individuals tend to be the very oldest. Other reports indicate that being separated with other aged people and having limited opportunities for making decisions, which leads to the decline in function. Although health and social policy believes that aging defines function, it does not. (Women 's Health Encyclopedia, 2011)