The Role of the Nurses Caring for the Elderly
Nursing is concerned with assessing, planning and implementing nursing care for the elderly. That is, it works to offer the best care with high quality of service to this sector of the population and its immediate surroundings. What are its goals? What functions does it perform? Where do geriatric nurses work? In this article, Mark Berger Villa Healthcare CEO is going to answer these questions and explain the basic nursing care functions. With 13% of the population currently at least 65 years old, and with 20% of the population expected to be at least 65 years old by 2030, providing care to older adults is now the health care systems' “core business” . Over the past 20 years, there has been shift in how nursing practice, education, and research are addressing the emerging health care needs of an aging society. Nurses who care for older adults need to have basic geriatric competencies as a way to assure that older adults experience appropriate nursing care. Virtually all nurses