Nursing Care for Older People

Running head:Nursing care for older people
Nursing care for older people
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s name

Nursing care for older people
Introduction
Nurses have a critical role in supporting health and wellbeing of older people though
clinical assessment, critical thinking, care collaboration or coordination, decision making and
clinical leadership or management (Kemppainen, Tossavainen&Turunen, 2013). With increasing
age, the prevalence of different chronic disease also increases leading to a poor quality of life
and ultimately, resulting to mortality. As a result of the age related functional decline of their
physiology for which the ability of preventing or recovering from illnesses is declined, they are
more vulnerable to deconditioning (Hafskjold, Sundling&Eide, 2018). Functional decline is one
of the major complication of hospitalization among older people that manifest in terms of
malnutrition, loss of skin integrity, a decreased functional mobility, and incontinence, an
increased risk of fall, development of mental health condition like delirium and dementia and
other chronic diseases. Evidences have suggested that an increased hospital stay leads to
functional decline in older people and are associated with adverse outcomes including longer
hospital stay, depression and a high risk of mortality (Weng et al., 2019). Thus, in response to the
above risk factors identified, nurses are responsible to take proper care of older people through
proper clinical assessments and undertaking critical role in meeting the unique needs of every
individual.
Discussion
RN responses to key issues related to older people's health and wellbeing:

Nursing care for older people
Older people experiences a range of chronic and other comorbid conditions that require
immediate assessment and implementation of age appropriate strategies essential for improving
their health outcomes. Nursing care for older people are thus complex and requires experience,
clinical expertise and core competencies for facilitating the delivery of an enhanced nursing care.
Nurses have diverse role in clinical settings and they must take a holistic approach to care and
follow individualized care plan to improve heath outcome and increase patient’s satisfaction
(Semachew, 2018).
Wellbeing and wellness for older people is characterized by the ability to take proactive
part in self active care activities for achieving a state of physical, psychological and spiritual
wellbeing (Joosse, Palmer & Lang, 2013). Wellbeing among older population is
multidimensional and complex and thus nurses working in geriatric care are required to deliver a
holistic and person centred care considering the age, needs, beliefs, preferences and expectation
of the patient. Spiritual care in an important intervention for a faster recovery for older people.
Spiritual and person centred has proven to be effective in promoting health and wellbeing of
older people (Kim & Park, 2017).
One of the common issues older people experience is dementia. Patients having dementia
have complex needs that often make it challenging for the nurses to deliver an enhanced acute
nursing care. Despite such advances in care older patients suffering from dementia often struggle
with cognitive decline progressively and gradually with functional decline and behavior that
affects their quality of life (Pinkert et al., 2018). In this study, the patient is found to be affected
by dementia and belong to the Aboriginal community. Aboriginal community people have been
found to be affected by the most common sub type of dementia known as vascular dementia.