Assignment on What Nursing Means?

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

1NURSING
Introduction:
The COVID19 or the Coronvirus is major pandemic that has influenced lives of millions
across the globe and affected the health care system and economy of developed countries across
the world. Coronavirus is an infectious disease that is caused by a newly discovered coronavirus.
WHO announced the new name of COVID-19 for coronavirus on 11th February, 2020. The virus
responsible for COVID-19 has been named SARS-COV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome
coronavirus 2) as the virus is genetically related to the coronavirus that causes the SARs
outbreak in 2003 (World Health Organization, 2020). People who are most likely to be infected
with the virus experience mild to moderate respiratory illness (WHO, 2020). However, older
people and people with underlying medical problems are more likely to develop serious
complications. Since the spread of the pandemic, the lives of senior living residents across the
world have change. This paper will explore in depth about the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on
senior living residents.
Impact of the pandemic on senior residents:
Based on the review of worldwide statistics on COVID-19, it has been found that seniors
or older adults are at elevated risk for complication and death compared to younger patients. This
has been established based on early data from China as well as data from mortality rate of
COVID-19 in other countries. According to cdc.gov (2020), most of the COVID-19 deaths have
occured in senior adults aged more than 60 years. The analysis of outcomes in USA also stated
that the fatality rate was highest in persons aged 65-84 years. In contrast, no fatalities were found
for person under the age of 19 years. The main cause behind this is that elderly patients have
multiple co-morbidities, frailty issues and compromised immune system (Brooke & Jackson,

2NURSING
2020). Due to such effect, it has been established that older patients with COVID-19 has much
less chance of survival compared to other countries. This has resulted in major changes in health
system decision making process. Elderly resident have become more at risk because in hard hit
countries like Italy and USA, doctors have started taking the tough decisions of preferring young
patients for full mechanical ventilator support instead of elderly adults (Vincent & Taccone,
2020).. This might be leading to very hard time for families who have older members with
COVID-19 infection and who have went through similar turmoils in health care settings. The key
lessons for the whole world from this evidence are that special care and precaution should be
taken to protect older members of the family from coronavirus infection.
Amid the COVID-19 break, dealing with shortage of intubation and ventilation became a
major issue for Wuhan as well as many countries like Italy and Spain. Doctors started preferring
younger patients instead of elderly to provide life support. Not giving the same support to elderly
may be associated with ethical issues and negative care experiences for older adults. It can bring
forward the question whether cause of death for older adults were due to COVID-19 or due to
treatment limitations. These are some challenges that doctors are facing each day and families
affected by denial of mechanical ventilation support for their seniors are filing legal cases
(Vincent & Taccone, 2020). The situation is an urgent state of crisis in the medical system and
unfortunately, the older adults are praying the price for it. The Human Rights Commission
monitored the issue of ageism and denial of the rights of older people during the times of
COVID1-9 pandemic. The report by () suggested the need to combat age discrimation as older
people face risks to their rights too. The government should ensure continuity of community
based services so that older adults are not exposed to additional risk.