Reflection on Healthy Aging

This essay discusses the importance of healthy aging and clinical reasoning cycle in promoting it. It includes a short interview with an older patient and preventive measures for better outcomes.

Running head: REFLECTION ON HEALTHY AGING
Reflection on healthy aging
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REFLECTION ON HEALTHY AGING
Introduction
Healthy aging is a process through which, social wellbeing and lifestyle of older adults
are determined. Clinical reasoning cycle provides the opportunity for the nurses to implement
evidence based framework into practice and implement safe and effective care to the patients as
well (Bherer, Erickson & Liu-Ambrose, 2013). For this assignment, the help of clinical
reasoning cycle will be taken to incorporate healthy ageing taking a short interview with an older
patient. According to the world health organization, healthy ageing can be defined as the process
of growth and enhanced functional ability of the elderly people so that they can continue to have
a content and healthy life (Williams, 2015). The primary focus of this essay will be discussing
about Mrs X aged 68 and her health conditions along with barriers that have to keep her away to
support a healthy ageing. This essay will attempt to demonstrate understanding of 4 key steps of
clinical decision making in order to promote healthy aging and make adequate clinical decisions
for the patient as per the key issues identified in the interview. Further it will also discuss some
preventive measures related to the patient for her better outcome.
Considering patient situation
The patient who has been selected for the interview is a 68 year old woman named
Sandra. She lived with her husband in suburbs in a two storey house. As the patient was
suffering with acute osteoarthritis, I decided to conduct the interview at her home. This helped to
decrease her inconvenience of visiting to the facility to get interviewed. As I reached her house
she took her time to open the door and I could ascertain that she had mobility restriction due to
her progressing osteoarthritis. I introduced myself to Sandra and she seemed to take some time to
recall our appointment. After sometime, she finally remembered and warmly welcomed me into
her house. Once inside her home, Sandra’s husband that after both their sons went abroad for

REFLECTION ON HEALTHY AGING
work, Sandra gradually became depressed, she hardly talks with anyone and keeps on forgetting
things every now and then.
Collecting cues
The collection of clues was based on Roper – Logan – Tierney Model which mainly
encompasses biological, socio-cultural, psychological, environment and political and economic
context (Williams, 2015). Upon my initial assessment of the house I noticed that although the
house had been tidy but there was an abundance of furniture and Sandra kept bumping into
furniture on her way inside. I conducted an interview with open ended questionnaire. During the
course of the interview process, Sandra informed that her mother and her elder sister also
suffered from joint pain and this helped me to understand that she has a family history of
osteoarthritis. According to Allen and Golightly (2015), genetic predisposition and family
history increase the chance of developing osteoarthritis. She also informed that she rarely visit
outdoors and mostly keeps herself indoors with her husband. Earlier she used to do gardening but
pain in her joints forbids her from practicing outdoor plantation. Uthman et al., (2013) is of the
opinion that mild to moderate physical activity among the older adults help to reduce the
chronicity of pain and improvement of the flexibility of joints. During the process of interview
conduction I also noticed that Sandra was getting lost within her words and at times uttering
unrelated sentences. This provided evidence behind her loss of memory. Lin et al., (2013) stated
that disorganized sentence construction and forgetting basic things are symptoms of memory loss
among older adults. Under the psychological context I realised that she was depressed as she
kept on repeating about who she misses her children. When asked about her medication plan,
Sandra thought for a while and say that she have medicines for her joint pain, high blood

REFLECTION ON HEALTHY AGING
pressure and her blood sugar level. She also found quoting that, “At this age, people like us
thrive on medicines than on food. This is the part of ageing process”.
Processing information
From the interview process, it was clear that Sandra was aware about the basic concept of
healthy ageing but is not informed enough about why healthy ageing is important and why one
need to stay healthy while ageing. While processing the information, I also understood that she
had family history of osteoarthritis and is suffering from depression in the absence of her sons.
Though she takes medicines regularly and consumes healthy meals, she neglects the healthy
living activities like mild to moderate physical exercise along with social interaction. According
to Bherer, Erickson and Liu-Ambrose (2013) apart from healthy eating, regular physical activity
along with social activities helps to promotes healthy ageing. Moderate physical activity in the
lower limbs also decreases joint pain of osteoarthritis. I explained her why daily physical
exercise is important for reducing her joint pain and how indulgence into the social activity will
help to improve her mental state of depression. I also informed her that increase in free carpet
area of her room will help to decrease the chances of accidental fall and thereby decreasing the
chance of injury.
Reflect on Process and New Learning
I gained numerous valuable experiences from this interview. I understood how lack of
companion can bring in depression among the older adults, hampering their mental health and
well-being. I also realised that conducting an interview with an older adult demands lots of
patience as you are required to repeat the question over and over again while not getting irritated.
Older adults either suffer from hearing problems or memory loss which prevents them from
comprehending the question in a single go (Beard, Officer & Cassels, 2016). As a future nurse, I

REFLECTION ON HEALTHY AGING
learned that as we age, the physiological mechanism of the body also changes which impacts on
our daily living. However, one can improve the quality of life and well-being via abiding by
healthy eating, mild to moderate physical exercise and social activities (Australian Government –
National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013).
Conclusion
This clinical reasoning cycle was important for my process as, through this I was able to
determine the importance of facilitators and barriers of healthy aging condition and also
understood the importance of change management in clinical facility so that patients health
condition can be improved. Thus from the above discussion, I want to conclude that the
profession of nursing is based on both the execution of the physical and the mental needs of the
patients. While conducting the interview, I realised that though the older adults are aware about
the concept of healthy ageing, but lack significant knowledge about how to promote healthy
ageing. The interview process was a great opportunity for me to understand the mental state of
the patient as well as I was able to implement all the nuances of communication. Hence, it helped
me to gain confidence for my future interview sessions. Proper knowledge about healthy diet and
physical activity will help to promote the concept and practice of healthy ageing in a
comprehensive manner, as these are preventive measures that will help her to refrain from the
adverse health situations. I also realised that clinical reasoning cycle is one of the best way to
understand the patient condition and execute different interventions via collection of clues and
processing of information. In order to collect clues in a comprehensive manner Roper-Logan-
Tierney model must be applied.

REFLECTION ON HEALTHY AGING
References
Allen, K. D., & Golightly, Y. M. (2015). Epidemiology of osteoarthritis: state of the
evidence. Current opinion in rheumatology, 27(3), 276.
Australian Government – National Health and Medical Research Council. (2013). Australian
Dietary Guidelines (2013). Access date: 18.07.2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/guidelines-publications/n55
Beard, J. R., Officer, A. M., & Cassels, A. K. (2016). The world report on ageing and health.
Bherer, L., Erickson, K. I., & Liu-Ambrose, T. (2013). A review of the effects of physical
activity and exercise on cognitive and brain functions in older adults. Journal of aging
research, 2013.
Lin, F. R., Yaffe, K., Xia, J., Xue, Q. L., Harris, T. B., Purchase-Helzner, E., ... & Health ABC
Study Group, F. (2013). Hearing loss and cognitive decline in older adults. JAMA
internal medicine, 173(4), 293-299.
Uthman, O. A., van der Windt, D. A., Jordan, J. L., Dziedzic, K. S., Healey, E. L., Peat, G. M., &
Foster, N. E. (2013). Exercise for lower limb osteoarthritis: systematic review
incorporating trial sequential analysis and network meta-analysis. Bmj, 347, f5555.
Williams, B. C. (2015). The Roper-Logan-Tierney model of nursing: A framework to
complement the nursing process. Nursing2018, 45(3), 24-26.