Elderspeak Communication

Communication eases anxiety of the patients and eliminates more possibilities for mistakes, and lets each party know what is expected of them it also helps the care worker to communicate and use their skills to meets the service user’s rights and needs. In a care home, there are elderly people who may have speech difficulties, be hard of hearing, but the care worker should not use the effective communication skills too much because if the care worker speaks to one of the elderly which has hearing difficulties he must ensure he does not speak to loud as the elderly person may feel intimidated and may feel that the care worker is

It is apparent that age discrimination is prevalent in today’s society within health care. This section will further explore ageism and provide ways to overcome it. According to Potter and Perry (2014) ageism is defined as “discrimination against people because of increasing age” (p. 376). Ageism has the ability to undermine self-confidence in older adults, limit their access to care, and even distort health care providers’ understanding of the uniqueness of each older adult. The Canadian Special Senate Committee on Aging has concluded that ageism in Canada is delicate and pervasive and immediate action is required (Potter & Perry, 2014). Ageism can result in over- treatment or under-treatment. For example, over-treatment can include “overuse

Aging is a summary term of complex biological processes that occurs over the course of life. As an individual age’s, they experience a cognitive, functional and social decline that affects their activities of daily living and general health. As a result of these changes, the older population becomes more susceptible to a variety of illnesses. However, nurses can lessen the severity of these aging related illnesses by teaching and providing the best care for their clients in order to decrease the number of elders that suffer from these diseases through a variety of interventions and strategies. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the nurses’ role in promoting healthy aging in the older population, by addressing a significant issue that impairs the health of many older Canadian adults.

Physicians for elderly patients lack communication with each other. If the physicians lack high level communication, then prescribed medicines may have an adverse effect on the elderly. The elderly, often times, have cognitive problems, which makes it difficult for the elderly to understand instructions for prescriptions. This can cause a serious issue in this particular population.

The key issues that I am going to discuss from my reflection are disempowerment due to a person’s age where either their family or care giver answer on behalf of the elderly patient and deny the patient of their own voice. Emotional problems are a common in the elderly and this particular psychological aspect often goes unnoticed.

Older people also suffer from more chronic health conditions than their younger counterparts, making their care much more involved and complex. For this reason, many health care professionals develop negative attitudes towards providing care for elderly. Their ageist attitudes can be expressed and experienced as microaggressions, making elders hesitant to seek and follow medical advice. Interestingly, nurses view working with elderly patients in a much more positive light. It is postulated that this is because the mission of nursing includes caring for people rather than seeking to cure them (Chrisler, Barney & Palatino, 2016).

There is a documentary from 2006 on PBS called Living Old from Frontline that interviews many elderly patients and their care-takers about living longer and the effect it has on them. It was very interesting to watch because it showed both sides of many problems facing the older adult and their families along with the potential decisions that will need to be made by them as people are living so much longer now. The purpose of this discussion is to address something I learned that I did not previously know, review what I found the most surprising, and what piece of information that will most likely affect my nursing practice after viewing this documentary.

In this assignment, I am going to explain a number of these strategies aimed at improving the quality of communication in health and social care settings.

The use of language is important, when talking to residents you need to keep things simpler than if you were talking to residents without dementia, however if you’re talking to an adult using very simple instructions this may seem patronising, it is important to choose your language carefully.

According to Statistics Canada, aging population has steadily increased since the mid-1960. The age of 65 and older comprised 15.7% of the country’s population. Promoting health in these aging population is very crucial to minimise the severity of health complications that might occur in the long run. Gerontological Nursing involves the care of aging people and emphasize the promotion of the highest possible quality of life and wellness throughout the lifespan (Eliopoulos, c2014 p73). Aging people need Gerontological Nurses who are knowledgeable and willing to promote health and optimum quality of life with the consideration of their core needs such as physiological balance, connection and gratification (Eliopoulos, c2014 p78).

Aging is a universal phenomenon and humans are no exception. Gerontology deals with the psychological, social and biological aspects of aging process. A recent study shows that people aged 85 years and older are expected to augment from 5.3 million people to 21 million as the world reach 2050. In today’s world Gerontology has an enormous role to play so that the senior citizens could be analyzed and their needs may be addressed with compassion and empathy.

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.

With the population of adults 65 and over steadily climbing, medical professionals and the healthcare system are struggling to keep up. One major issue concerning the healthcare system is that it is not set up properly provide care for these older adults. The physicians today, who regularly see patients, focus mainly has been; diagnose—usually in a 15-20 minute office visit, treat, and cure. Many of these senior citizens have multiple chronic illnesses or diseases, which require time to manage and treat. The problem is that they may not be able to explain what the real problem to a doctor in that time.

For this visit summary, I have interviewed a 90-95-year-old assisted living resident that will be re-named Joyce for the purpose of this paper. Before constructing the interview, I was very excited and anxious to meet the resident I was interviewing for the first time. Upon arrival, I was put to ease once meeting a genuine elderly woman in the lobby that was just as excited to meet me for the first time. When reflecting on the interview I am glad to have had prior knowledge on therapeutic communication of older adults. I had seemly used all of the tips that the book had highlighted. These tips include attentive listening, authentic presence, clarifying, keeping focus, and providing intervals of silence (Touhy & Jett, 2016, p. 67).

I have a patient advocate who reports to me. She is a member of the Baby Boomer Generation. Her communication style