Nursing Staff Attitudes towards the Elderly Essay

Nursing Staff Attitudes towards the Elderly - Essay ExampleWhen elderly patients atomic number 18 perceived as being cantankerous and complaining by nurses, the consequence would most likely that the quality of care delivered and the recovery of patients is affected (Courtney, 2000).Aging of the Australian population has occurred rapidly in recent years. The greatest increases in number have been indicated among the very old or those aged 80 years or over. The aged population from 65 and former(a) has been predicted to reach 22% or 5 million by the year 2051, doubling that of 1991 or 11% at 1.9 million according to Clare (1994).Likewise, it was said that gerontological nursing is still an unpopular specialty and nursing students interest in pursuing it as a calling decrease during their education (Slevin, 1991). The health-care transcription has been heavily put to workd by social developments and ageist stereotypes, combined with increases in the aged population (Palmer, 1994) . In as much as older people are perceived by policy makers and society in general as problems requiring considerable attention and resources (Palmer, 1994), it had also been indicated that increases in the Australian health-care cost have been attributed to the increases in the aged population. Nevertheless, Palmer (1994) found that these increases are more closely linked to social and political changes than a physiologically aging population. Accordingly, changes in the health-care system were influenced by the major political parties social and economic policies, the need to contain hospital operating costs and the promotion of community care for the chronically ill, incapacitate and frail aged (Courtney, 1997). But it has to be noted that many family members are no longer able to care for their older relatives due to social factors such(prenominal) as increases in divorce and participation of women in the workforce. This has dramatically decreased the availability of informal c ommunity support systems for future generations of older people upon which the political relation has relied heavily since the 1985 de-institutionalization of aged care to a hostel and home-based care (Gibson, 1998).Nurse AttitudeSeveral studies have identified factors, such as an area of practice, age, sexual urge and years in clinical practice, as affecting nurses attitude strength (Lookinland, 1991). Soderhamn and colleagues found younger and male nurses possessing more negative attitudes in comparison with older and female nurses. Soderhamns (2001) research also demonstrates that higher education, gerontology courses and more years of clinical experience were found to be associated with less negative attitudes. Another influence is the area of clinical practice influencing attitude strength (Soderhamn, 2001). Cited as the example was that nurses working in acute settings were found to use more negative uninspired labeling to describe their older patients to student nurses tha n those working in elder-care settings (McLafferty, 2004).