Geriatric Population from An FNP Perspective Peer Response

Please respond to your peer’s posts, from an FNP perspective. To ensure that your responses are substantive, use at least two of these prompts:

Do you agree with your peers’ assessment?
Take an opposing view to a peer and present a logical argument supporting an alternate opinion.
Share your thoughts on how you support their opinion and explain why.
Present new references that support your opinions.

ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED SOLUTION PAPERS

Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format. Substantive means that you add something new to the discussion, you aren’t just agreeing. This is also a time to ask questions or offer information surrounding the topic addressed by your peers. Personal experience is appropriate for a substantive discussion and should be correlated to the literature.Be sure to review your APA errors in your reference list, specifically you have capitalization errors in some words of the titles. Also, be sure you are italicizing titles of online sources.No more than 200 words maximum.

Vivek’s Response:

The term geriatrics denotes the age group of 65+ and the associated health care and services provided. It is important to note that the needs and expectations of this demographic are diverse and continue to change. Factors other than age define the individual in the elderly age group which in turn determine the type of geriatric care provided. While expectations differ from person to person, in general- older adults are encouraged to use health-promoting resources and to participate in a healthy lifestyle (Breda & Watts, 2017). The outcomes of this are prevention of health complications, treatment/medication adherence, physical activity, and mental wellness. Barriers can include costs, transportation, lack of knowledge, and existing health issues.

One barrier which I think is not spoken enough about is the attitude about aging and its role in positive health outcomes. The term geriatric care is an extension regular adult health care. From my experience, lifestyles and habits become tougher to modify as age progresses. Studies show that positive expectations regarding aging are associated with better physical function while aging, as well as increased longevity (Breda & Watts, 2017). My views on this is geriatric care is a small and later part of the holistic health model. The influence of perceptions of aging is not limited to physical or cognitive function (Menkin et al., 2016). This suggests that the expectation of positive health outcomes go beyond age, physical ailments, and understanding- common barriers. I come across more and more articles on the web and social media that agree with this research in more everday language. For example, a web article posted on Smartliving365 by contributing author Kathy Gotteberg talks about how mindset affects both our health and how we age (2018). Through this course I hope to gain better understanding in the ways to help the elderly population adopt this holistic style of health promotion.

Reference

Breda, A. I., & Watts, A. S. (2017). Expectations Regarding Aging, Physical Activity, and Physical Function in Older Adults. Gerontology & geriatric medicine, 3, 2333721417702350. doi:10.1177/2333721417702350

Gottberg, K. (2018). Studies Prove Your Mindset Determines How You Age. Retrieved from https://www.smartliving365.com/mindset-positive-ag…

Menkin, J. A., Robles, T. F., Gruenewald, T. L., Tanner, E. K., & Seeman, T. E. (2016). Positive Expectations Regarding Aging Linked to More New Friends in Later Life. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbv118

Erick’s Response:

Introduction to Geriatrics

Geriatrics focuses on healthcare provision – both curative and preventative forms – to old people aged over 65 years old. It is founded on gerontology which is the scientific study of aging that covers its key three domains – biologic, psychologic and sociologic aspects of aging. The goal of geriatrics is not only to increase life expectancy beyond the national average, but it also aims to improve the quality of old life (Kasper et al, 2018).

Elderly patients have unique health needs because most of their organ systems, especially the circulatory, respiratory, neurological, and locomotor systems, have aged and become less functional due to continuous use. Nutrition also changes as one ages which causes catabolism to outpace anabolism allowing for cachexia to set in. This also raises a dilemma – how can a geriatrician differentiate between organ dysfunction caused by aging, and that caused by a disease process? Answering this question provides the basis for achieving healthy aging in one’s patients. Certain expectations are universal – such as that the renal system must still be able to produce and excrete urine, hence renal failure or urinary incontinence are immediately recognized as diseases (Kasper et al, 2018).

Another important consideration is how to manage patients with multiple chronic comorbidities, especially those whose onset of chronic conditions occurred during the youth or mid-life periods. In such conditions, the affected organ systems have suffered significant loss of function and integrity to the point that the geriatrician must focus on stabilizing the remaining healthy reserve capacity so that the patient can achieve a relatively good life quality (Kasper et al, 2018).

Personal beliefs are based on the idea that the nurse must advocate and provide the safest and most efficient care to patients, with the expectation that the geriatric patients can live a relatively comfortable life without unnecessary suffering. Evidence-based practice (EBP) must be applied, and it should be grounded on peer-reviewed studies, as this provides a better perspective to patient care as compared to using what the hospital prescribes as the best plan of actions for various illnesses.

References

Kasper, D. L., Fauci, A. S., Hauser, S. L., Longo, D. L., Jameson, J. L., & Loscalzo, J.

(2018). Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. McGraw-Hill, Medical Publishing

Division.

Mohanty, S., Rosenthal, R. A., Russell, M. M., Neuman, M. D., Ko, C. Y., & Esnaola, N. F.

(2016). Optimal perioperative management of the geriatric patient: a best practiceS

guideline from the American College of Surgeons NSQIP and the American Geriatrics