Care For The Elderly Research Articles

Diversification and Expansion of Clinical Pharmacy Services: Is it Time for Senior Care Pharmacists to Step Into the Light?

According to the American Board of Medical Specialties, there were 7,123 certified geriatricians practicing in the United States in 2021. The Health Resources and Services Administration estimates a shortage of 27,000 geriatricians in 2025. Only 43% of geriatrics fellowship spots were filled in 2022. With this forthcoming decrease in medical providers, the role of the senior care pharmacist must expand and diversify to provide an equitable level of care that older patients will need-especially with the expansion of antipsychotic, antimicrobial, and opioid stewardship programs. Senior care pharmacists possess a diverse range of skills and knowledge that are indispensable to the health care team. It is time to move beyond the consultant role, expanding both clinically and operationally, to provide the quality health care that older patients need.

Delirium diagnostic 2012 to 2021, contribution of CAM and clinical nurses of the geriatric consultation team in CIUSSS de l’Estrie‐CHUS

AbstractBackgroundTo evaluate the evolution of diagnostic of delirium following the introduction of CAM as a geriatric vital sign as part of The Specialized Approach to Senior Care (l’approche adaptée à la personne âgée, AAPA) in University Hospital CIUSSS de l’Estrie‐CHUS in 2014.MethodTraining on CAM and delirium was given in 2014. The nurses of the geriatric consultation team make recommendations/coaching to the treating teams during geriatric consultations. We analyze ICD‐10 data from > 65‐year‐olds hospitalized at the CHUS before (2012) and after (2016). A criteria base analysis of the files with diagnosis of delirium on the discharge letter or a geriatric consultation of November 2016 describes the considerations related to delirium.ResultOf the 32,000 hospitalizations at CHUS in 2016, 13,000 are over 65 years old and 1296 have a geriatric consultation. 2.2% in 2012 to 2.7% in 2016 had delirium according to the exit letter. That is 3% of 65‐75 year olds and 8% of those over 75. 102 consecutive files of geriatric nursing consultations from November 2016 are reviewed. 63 new diagnoses of delirium with an average of 3 recommendations from the AAPA to the treatment team.ConclusionDelirium remains under‐documented at release and improves little from 2012 to 2021. The modalities of use of the current tools remain insensitive. The support of geriatric consultation teams remains necessary to support the development of AAPA against delirium.

Knowledge of Family About Post Stroke Care for the Elderly in Kasang Kumpeh Village Jambi

The elderly period or aging process is bound to occur in the human condition. Various types of diseases are very easy to attack the function of our organs. To minimize the disease that comes, a good lifestyle is needed by means of routine exercise and knowledge about health awareness. Stroke is a common cause of third-order death in developed countries after cardiovascular disease and cancer. The goal of rehabilitation is to help patients become independent again and have a good quality of life. This research activity is to determine the description of family knowledge about care for the elderly or post patients in Kasang Kumpeh Village, because stroke is one of the diseases that requires special care and support from the family. The method used in this study is qualitative method and the technique carried out is sampling technique. The results showed that family knowledge about post-stroke patients was mostly lacking. The more knowledge the family has, the greater the support that can be provided in the process of treating stroke patients. Furthermore, this research can be used as a source of family knowledge for post-stroke therapy for the elderly in Kasang Kumpeh village. The results of the evaluation both through interviews, questions and answers regarding post-stroke knowledge are that the average family and the elderly each know less about the care of post-stroke patients, so it is necessary to hold further eduaction related to this post-stroke.

Palliative Care for the Elderly With Heart Diseases in Tertiary Health care: A Concept Analysis.

The increasing incidence of heart failure (HF) in the elderly leads to increased mortality, hospitalization, length of hospital stay, and health care costs. Older adults often face multiple drug treatments, comorbidities, frailty, and cognitive problems, which require early palliative care. However, these patients do not receive adequate palliative care. This concept analysis aimed to develop an in-depth understanding of palliative care for elderly patients with cardiac diseases in tertiary care. The analysis was guided by Walker and Avant's method, and databases were searched using keywords, such as palliative care, tertiary care, elderly, and heart. Covidence was used to review the results using the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The World Health Organisation's definition of palliative care is widely accepted. Palliative care for older adults with heart disease in tertiary care is preceded by chronic illness, polypharmacy, symptom burden, physical and cognitive decline, comorbidities, and psychosocial/spiritual issues. The main attributes of palliative care for this population include health care professionals and patient education, holistic patient/family-centered care, symptom management, shared decision-making, early integration, advanced care planning, and a multidisciplinary approach. Palliative care improves elderly cardiac patients' and their family satisfaction while reducing readmission, hospital stays, and unnecessary invasive procedures. Collaboration between hospitals, community organizations, transitional palliative care services, and research has the potential to improve early palliative care and the well-being of the elderly cardiac population. Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs) competencies play a crucial role in promoting palliative care in the elderly HF population.

Service-Learning Practices and Reflections in the Perspective of Nel Noddings’ Theory of Caring Education: The “Care for the Elderly” Service-Learning Program as an Example

Nel Noddings’ ethics of care is an important lineage of Western moral education thought, which contains deep humanistic values. Service-learning advocates the equal importance of service and learning, and emphasizes more on the discovery of educational connotations in practice. Based on the social background of aging, this paper takes the “Care for the Elderly” service-learning program as an example, attempts to take the care ethics as the entry point, adopts interviews,questionnaires, and other research methods, and opens-up the service-learning practice path under the threshold of Nel Noddings’ care education theory.

Associations Between Age-Related Hearing Loss, Cognitive Impairment, and Multiple Chronic Conditions in a Group Care Setting.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between hearing loss, cognitive status, and a range of health outcomes over a period of 2 years in a sample of older adults who are enrolled in Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which is a Medicare/Medicaid beneficiary program for individuals who are nursing home eligible but living in the community at time of enrollment. The sample (N = 144) includes a diverse (47% White/non-Hispanic, 35% Black/African American, and 16% Latin/Hispanic) group of adults ranging from 55 to 93 years old. We used medical chart data to measure respondents' cognitive and health status, including chronic conditions and hospital use. Hearing status was measured once at the beginning of the 2-year review period. We used logistic regression and negative binomial hurdle models for analyses. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to explore the extent to which respondents cluster into a set of "health profiles" characterized by their hearing, cognitive status, and health conditions. We found that hearing loss is weakly associated with heart disease and diabetes and associated with cerebrovascular disease and falls; cognitive impairment is also associated with cerebrovascular disease and the number of falls. LCA indicates that respondents cluster into a variety of health profiles with a consistent pairing of hearing loss and depression. The results are largely consistent with associations reported in epidemiological studies that include age-related hearing loss. Of particular interest in this study is the LCA that suggested that all of the profiles associated with a high likelihood of hearing loss included a high risk of depression. The co-occurrence of these two factors highlights the need to identify and treat hearing loss in older adults, especially as part of the treatment plan for individuals with depressive symptoms.

Research on the retention factors of interns majoring in elderly care service in Chinese higher vocational colleges: based on a qualitative comparative analysis method (QCA)

Introduction. As China enters the aging population society, there is a higher demand for the quantity and quality of elderly care services, and further triggers the continuous demand for elderly care service talents in China. Some Chinese higher vocational colleges have set up majors in elderly care service management, and continuously transfer students to elderly care service institutions, but the mobility is still relatively high by survey. In this case, analyzing the factors affecting interns’ retention has become a major issue. Study participants and methods. Students who majored in elderly care services at a local higher vocational college in Wenzhou, China, and had internship experience in nursing institutions were chosen as the study's subjects. Students must complete an 8-month internship program, which includes a post-internship and a graduation internship. Non-probability sampling was utilized to extract the sample. For the questionnaire survey on internship duration, 100 higher vocational graduate students majoring in elderly care services were chosen, and 15 interns were chosen for interviews., and then they were analyzed using a qualitative comparative analysis method (QCA). Results. The analysis results for QCA: The personal psychological capital of the interns was the first core factor in any case. At the same time, even if there was no family support and high workload factors, the interns could stay as long as they can get a satisfactory internship salary and satisfactory accommodation & diet; Or even if there was no satisfactory internship salary and satisfactory accommodation & diet factors, as long as they had family support and low workload design, interns also could stay. While according to the data survey, 67% of students did not finish their internships, and 37% of those students departed their positions before the mandatory four months had passed. This is sufficient evidence that internship retention rates are quite poor among higher vocational students in China who major in senior care services. Practical significance. Good psychological capital, family support, and a moderate workload were all necessary for the internship to be successful. The internship requires an environment that cater the full supports intern. The ministry human resource management, needs to play a significant role in enforcing the policy to monitor the system that supports the internship process, ensuring that the business community is informed about internship-related concerns, and support the internship support system.

The Essential Role of Senior Care Pharmacists in Antimicrobial Stewardship: An Updated Position Statement on Behalf of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists.

Senior care pharmacists are well-positioned to lead and drive antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) initiatives, not only through audit and data collection, but also through communication, collaboration, and cooperation with prescribers and nurses to influence prescribing behaviors. Senior care pharmacists are in a unique position to take a leadership role within the interprofessional team to achieve AMS goals. They should engage with the interprofessional team to promote the judicious and appropriate use of antimicrobials at their practice sites. This position statement is an update of the 2017 version by the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) Antimicrobial Stewardship and Infection and Prevention Control Committee and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP).

Infectious Disease: Historic Triumphs and Future Tragedy?

With each new source of infection has come increased understanding of the means of transmission and the development of vaccines and antibiotics to combat them. In this month's penultimate edition of Policy Currents, the author provides resources on infectious diseases for senior care and consultant pharmacists.

Pharmacists Working to Avert an Avoidable Apocalypse.

A recently published novel paper explored the frightening prospect of living in an imaginary world where antibiotics can no longer fulfill their valuable function in modern medicine. The authors of this piece demonstrate an interesting approach that they feel might motivate health care professionals to contemplate more carefully what can be done to preserve the utility of antimicrobials. In what is perhaps a more pragmatic approach, in this edition of the journal, we publish a joint position statement addressing the role of senior care pharmacists in antimicrobial stewardship. The position statement addresses a range of concepts, but of importance overall it speaks to the need for pharmacists to play an important role in preserving the efficacy of antibiotics.

The Chinese Aging Society and Wisdom Pension in the Digital Age

With the rapid development of digitalization, the elderly is facing increasing difficulties in keeping up with the pace of the digital era. In this paper, the concepts of aging, aging population, and aging society are analyzed, along with their impacts on economy, society, culture, and technology. The big changes that need to be made in an aging society about wisdom pension are also discussed. As China has the largest elderly population in the world, it is necessary to study the aging society and develop solutions to ensure the health and well-being of the elderly population. This paper also points out the shortcomings of Chinas research in the field of Smart Senior Care, indicating that the research themes are relatively single, the research perspective is too generalized, and insufficient attention has been paid to differences in living standards among the elderly. This paper suggests that more attention should be paid to the spiritual needs of the elderly, and more targeted countermeasures should be proposed to address different practical problems in different regions.

Current Situation and Evaluation of Smart Senior Care in Jiaxing City, China

With the deepening population ageing, the aging problem is becoming more prominent in various countries. Traditional ways of ageing cannot meet the needs of modern ageing, and in the context of Internet+ and big data, research on smart senior care is becoming increasingly urgent. All nations now agree that information technology may help with traditional ageing. This paper takes Jiaxing city as an example, discusses the current aging situation in the city and the development status of smart senior care, draws on some means of foreign smart senior care, and proposes suggestions. At present, the ageing problem in Jiaxing is very prominent, with a large and fast-growing elderly population and the accelerated development of advanced ageing, smaller families, and empty nesting. Based on the characteristics of Jiaxing city and considering foreign models of smart senior care, this paper proposes three development suggestions: optimise the ageing model, improve the professionalism of service providers, and appeal to the government.

Fair Working Conditions for Workers Providing Informal Care for the Elderly in Poland and in the Netherlands

Fair Working Conditions for Workers Providing Informal Care for the Elderly in Poland and in the Netherlands

The Certificate of Added Competence credentialling program in family medicine: a descriptive survey of the family physician perspective of enhanced skill practices in Canada.

The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) offers the Certificate of Added Competence (CAC) program to designate a family physician with enhanced skills. In 2015, the College expanded its program to introduce enhanced certification in four new domains: Palliative Care, Care of the Elderly, Sports and Exercise Medicine, and Family Practice Anesthesia. In this study, we elicited perceptions from Canadian family physicians with and without the CAC on practice impacts associated with the program. Active family physicians in Canada with and without CACs were surveyed between November 2019 to January 2020. Descriptive statistics were generated to describe the perceptions of family physicians regarding the CAC program and its impacts on practice. Respondents agreed with several benefits of the program including enhancing the capacity to deliver comprehensive care, alleviating the burden of patient travel by increasing the availability of care in rural and remote communities, and providing opportunities to engage in various collaborative care models and new leadership roles. All respondents perceived CAC holders to pursue the certificate to meet both professional interests and community needs. There is a need for strong and continued investment in systemic practice improvements that incentivize the delivery of comprehensive family medicine practice.

Assessing the Impact of Recreational Programs on the Well-being of Senior Citizens

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the assessing the impact of recreational programs on the well-being of senior citizens
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library
 Findings: Participation in recreational programs among senior citizens yielded significantly positive outcomes across various dimensions of well-being. These programs were linked to improved physical health, enhanced social connections, boosted cognitive function, better emotional well-being, and an overall higher quality of life. The cumulative effect of engagement in these activities underlines the importance of recreational programs in promoting well-being among senior citizens.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social Exchange Theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Successful Aging Theory may be used to anchor future studies on assessing the impact of recreational programs on the well-being of senior citizens. Findings can inform the design of recreational programs, tailoring activities to address specific well-being factors like physical health, social connections, and cognitive stimulation Policymakers can incentivize healthcare providers to incorporate recreational programs as part of holistic care for seniors.

Retracted: High-Quality Nursing Care for the Elderly in the Department of Otolaryngology.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1155/2021/5542562.].

The Challenges and Strategies of Social Workers in the Care of the Elderly with Chronic Illness

The objective of the research is to identify, analyse, and understand the challenges faced by social workers in the care of older persons suffering from chronic diseases, as well as to describe and strategies used in addressing them. The research method uses a qualitative approach by conducting in-depth interviews with four social workers who have experience treating elderly people suffering from chronic diseases. The techniques used are interviews and observations, which are then analyzed using content analysis techniques. Research results show that social workers face several significant challenges in the care of older persons with chronic diseases, including the medical complexity of chronic disease, social isolation, mobility constraints, and financial problems. In addition, social workers also face obstacles in coordinating with various health and care services. However, it also developed various effective strategies, such as collaborative approaches with multidisciplinary care teams, intensive emotional support, and providing education to patients and their families. The results of the research can conclude that social workers have an important role to play in addressing the complex challenges in the care of older people with chronic diseases. The strategy applied can help improve the quality of life of patients and support their families in the face of emerging problems.

Fin de vie et souffrance psychique intolérable. Contiguïté éthique ou option législative : quel paradigme retenir ?

End-of-life patients in many countries have legal access to euthanasia, support for suicide, or assisted suicide. Intolerable psychological suffering, whether or not associated with incurable and/or debilitating pathologies, beyond the therapeutic possibilities, is at the very core of their request. It is, however, difficult for third parties to evaluate such suffering since all suffering is inherently subjective. Moreover, it is particularly challenging for caregivers and medical staff when the patient is not close to a natural death. It is difficult to ascertain the incurability of a psychiatric illness and intolerable suffering, which is a subjective criterion to be accepted as such by the nursing staff. The capacity for discernment and decision-making of a patient overwhelmed by his/her moral pain is impaired, and an elderly person may present cognitive disorders, which must be assessed in his/her request for active assistance in dying. In this article, we analyze the complexity of the approach to intolerable mental suffering. Such suffering is related to societal issues, the consequences of often incapacitating psychiatric problems and psychological difficulties, particularly existential ones. We insist on the necessity of evaluating the cognitive capacity of elderly persons to make such a decision and on the importance of the accompaniment of those awaiting active assistance in dying. Decision-making and care for seniors with multiple chronic conditions must focus on the seniors’ priorities and on their quality of life. These priorities are not exclusively medical. The general approach to unbearable suffering at the end of life or in other circumstances is necessarily global, holistic, and bio-psycho-social.

Progressive Relationship Between Sustainable Development of Elderly Care Institutions and Spatial Environmental Factors: A Study Based on the Influence of Supermarkets, Medical Accessibility, and Parks in Urban Areas.

To study the relationship between three variables, namely, the number of supermarkets around, the average distance to medical institutions designated to be covered by basic medical insurance, and the presence of parks around, and the sustainable development of elderly care institutions. This paper is based on the census database of elderly care institutions in Beijing. We ran a self-developed Python program to mine the database after adding three variables, namely, the number of supermarkets around, the average distance to medical institutions designated to be covered by basic medical insurance (hereinafter referred to as "designated medical institutions"), and the presence of parks around, and then used the least squares method in regression analysis. The number of years of depreciation for fixed assets had some degree of influence on the occupancy rate of an elderly care institution under sustained operation. The occupancy rate of above 80% was efficient for an elderly care institution. There was a progressive relationship between the external spatial factors and the internal resources of an elderly care institution in terms of influencing the occupancy rate of the institution. Optimizing the spatial distribution of elderly care institutions should first optimize the choice of location. The occupancy rate of an elderly care institution was closely related to the convenience of living conditions and that site selection was crucial for such a facility. We arrived at two recommendations for the future development of elderly care institutions, 1. Reducing the number of the institutions in areas with unfavorable geographic positions and serving senior care needs within an appropriate close distance, so as to better optimize the spatial distribution of senior care facilities, improve the efficiency of resource allocation. 2. Strike a balance between the economic benefits of operating entities and the social benefits associated with older people.

Relation between Oral Health Care for the Elderly and Their Quality of Life

Relation between Oral Health Care for the Elderly and Their Quality of Life