Elder Woman Interview

The purpose of the assignment was to interview an “elder” member of society to gain valuable information and insight into an individual’s experiences and development, and how they pertain to biosocial, cognitive, and psychosocial development. I had the pleasure of interviewing a woman aged 68, who provided a glimpse of the wisdom she has gained over her lifetime as well as her daily interactions and age-related topics.

I have always admired the senior citizens who are wondering how they have passed such long journeys of their lives. They not only have accomplished achievements, but also have done memorable works that deserve admiration, respect, and priority in today’s society. These old people may look incompetent and unexciting in somebody’s eyes and thoughts, but not everyone realizes that they are the people with greatest knowledge and experiences beyond their masters of life. From my own experience, whenever I see an old mister or mistress looking for help or in need of help, I can never ignore him or

The nurse I chose to interview has been a family friend for a while, as she has worked closely with my mother for several years. She is the first nurse I met when I decided I was interested in going into the nursing field, and she is actually the person who encouraged me to apply to Truman State University’s nursing program. I was confident that she would be able to share her capacity of nursing knowledge and wisdom with me when I asked if I could interview her. I will expand on our interview which took place in her office at work throughout the next couple of pages, and to keep confidentiality, I will allude to her by her initials, J.W.

I interviewed a senior citizen named Debbie. Debbie is 57 years old and was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. She was raised with two other siblings. She has two brothers and she is the oldest of the three. Debbie attended school for thirteen years completing elementary school and high school followed by four years of college. Debbie graduated college with a degree in Elementary Education. Her various occupations over the past years have ranged from a caretaker of small children, homemaker, Sunday school teacher, and general managers of different business. She is currently the general manager of a

Aging is very complex and highly individualized process which begins at conception and end with death. Variables such as physical or cognitive impairments, socioeconomic aspect, cultural values, and beliefs make an aging process unique to each individual. I interviewed an elderly woman using a set of guided questionnaires on the topic to further explore her aging experience. For the purpose of this assignment, I will refer to the client interviewed as a D.L., a changed name for a reason of privacy and confidentiality. During the interview, we explored a D.L. strategy to stay healthy, significant accomplishments of her life, hobbies and activities, retirement, and finally the goals for the future.

I had the privilege of interviewing a 60 year old gentlemen who I will identify as Mr. E to protect his privacy for this assignment. The goal of my interview was to gain insight on aging from an older adult. I interviewed Mr. E in his home on a weekday evening. He expressed appreciation and was surprised that he was the focus of an interview in which his life story and thoughts would be recorded.

In the early 1940’s Marie was born into a small tight knit family living in a small rural Kentucky town. Marie is now in her seventies and has led a very interesting life traveling the country, raising four children, and shaping her chosen profession. Our interview sessions were conducted over a period of time, as Marie is very active and has little “free time” to spare.

Ed is 77-year-old White heterosexual man who is in good health and lives in the Niles area of Fremont, California with his wife, Laura, and eldest son Michael. Ed strongly identifies as Irish-Catholic and he and Laura raised their family in an Irish-Catholic household. I selected Ed as my interviewee because he lives in my neighborhood and is good friends with my neighbor’s father. The two degrees of separation between us are gender, ethnicity/cultural identity, as well as socioeconomic status (he is an upper middle class retiree).

The humanity of aging is a concept sometimes hard to grasp. Understanding why we are

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

In February of 2000, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's disease. She was diagnosed with the disease just less than two years prior to her death. Throughout that time, I watched changes in my grandmother that made her seem like an entirely different woman to me. She gradually began losing her short-term memory and we began to see signs of her long-term memory degrading too. It began to get harder and harder to take her out into public without being afraid of what would happen next. Her emotions would fluctuate with the changing of each minute it seemed. Physically she became weaker and weaker and would often scare us with falling while she would be walking. Eventually she had to be moved into the

The older adult I had the opportunity to interview was my boyfriend 's step grandmother. I met her a few years ago when we took a vacation in Florida, and thought she would be a great person to interview, because she is outgoing and has aged well. I conducted a telephone interview for this assignment, because she is currently in Florida for the remainder of the Spring season.

L was married for 20 years. She has 2 daughters; one is going to school and the other lives in Texas. Her mother has been living with her for 3 ½ years. She enjoys movies, having coffee with her friends once a week, and her two grandchildren. She is active in her church, and used to do prison ministry. She works in Gerontology at the Health Sciences Center and has been a Tech employee for 25 years.

“The best classroom is at the feet of an elderly person,” said by a famous American radio and television writer, Andy Rooney. Elderly has so much to teach the younger generation because they have been through an array of events in life that are worth sharing and knowing. The purpose of the study is to understand the experience of aging and late adulthood by using case study method through interview and informal interaction with an older adult. Given the circumstance of long distance, Skype is used to conduct the interview and informal interaction. Mary, is a vibrant and healthy Chinese elderly woman who turned 75 last summer. She is an atheist who has lived in Hong Kong for her entire life and would be classified as middle class lifestyle. She is widowed and lives alone but she has four children and eight grandchildren. Since she is active, healthy and independent, the “young-old” would be the best term to describe Mary according to gerontologists (Berger, 2014, p.675).

Upon starting this Gerontology course, I was overwhelmed with the course expectations, having to complete an Older Adult Review project, weekly discussion board posts and comments with precise APA format (which I was horrible at) and lots of supplemental reading to fulfill the learning outcomes of this course. Nevertheless, I overcame all those obstacles and have obtained newfound knowledge of what it is like to age, firsthand, coming from one of my favorite patients which has cleared many of the stereotypes I had on the geriatric population. Thanks to this course and interviews with Mary, I have a better understanding of the geriatric population which will benefit my future career as a Registered Nurse.