Geriatric Nursing

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the profession of geriatric nursing and in particular, as a staff development coordinator. It examines how the need for geriatric nurses has increased due to the maturation of the American population as a whole and from the increased awareness of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias which eventually require specialized care, sometimes on a continuous basis, in a long-term care facility. It looks at the necessity for continuing education and how the geriatric nurse is responsible for the functions within the long-term care facility that are most critical to the quality of care delivered to patients.

From the Paper:

"Despite the growth, geriatrics does not seem to be a popular specialty among nurses, a fact documented by studies (Milly & Mezey, p. 264; Fagerberg & Ekman, p. 177). Fagerberg and Ekman state that many research studies have found that nursing students are not "wholeheartedly" in favor of working with geriatric care patients although they have both positive and negative attitudes about working with elderly patients (Fagerberg and Ekman, p. 177). Of the 4,336 nurses who graduated from a master's program in all specialties in 1996, only 218 were prepared as geriatric/gerontological nurse practitioners (Milly & Mezey, p. 264). The researchers point out that as the population ages, recruiting quality nurses to care for these patients may become an issue (Fagerberg & Ekman, p. 177). In addition, locating faculty to educate graduating and practicing nurses becomes another challenge."

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