Gerontological nursing 1982

Abstract

Gerontological nursing has lain almost dormant in academia like a sleeping giant waiting its turn for nurses’ attention. The burgeoning elderly population forecast by sociologists, and their corresponding health care needs, forecast by gerontological nursing pioneers, has arrived. Full credit is given to those faculty members and nurses in practice and other positions, who for the past twenty years have kept lighted the lamp of enlightened gerontological nursing, hoping that its illumination will ignite complacent colleagues previously inattentive to the inevitable coming flood of elderly people needing nursing care. Since 1966, when the American Nurses’ Association declared gerontological nursing a specialty, faculties in schools of nursing have made sporadic attempts to prepare themselves and their students in this specialty. Concurrently, the aged population has exploded to the magnitude predicted by the demographers. This paper will review the present status in the nursing of the aged with implications for planning based on statistically demonstrated need and within the context of nursing’s responsibilities. Five issues to be examined include educational needs of faculty, the number of nurses prepared in gerontological nursing, consumer needs of the aged as indicated by demographic studies of the health status of the aged, identification of factors facilitating or inhibiting the professional advancement of gerontological nursing faculty members including employment availability for such faculty by deans or directors of schools of nursing, and identifying guidelines for the knowledge upon which gerontological nursing is based. The demography of the aged and their health status The United States is experiencing a growing urgency related to the health care of its aged. The over-65 population constitutes an increasing proportion of the country’s population. Specifically, the over-65 population now comprises about 25 million, approximately 12%, of the total population. By the year 2030 this age group will contain a predicted 50 million people, over 18% of the total population. Moreover, the over-75 age group has increased even more rapidly than the 65-74 age group. While all the aged share some problems, the over-75 are most vulnerable to the physical, mental and social assaults that lead to the need for nursing care. In 1975 the over-75 age group represented