The world is increasingly getting older as the number of people who live above 60 years is rapidly surging, especially in developed and emerging countries, including some developing nations. The latest statistics that was released by the US Census Bureau revealed that about 44.7 million people in the country are above 65 years old (Wessel, 2015). The number is expected to increase significantly by 2030. The US is not only the country that is experiencing an increase in the number of elderly people. Brazil, for instance, has 17.7 million people who are older than 60 years and the number increases by about 650,000 annually (Lube et al ., 2016). The aging population is expected to substantially transform the nursing practice in different ways in 20 years to come, making it the most important debatable social problem facing the nursing field. The aging population is not only a factor contributing to the nursing shortage, but it also requires nurses to invest a lot of resources in retraining and medical technologies to meet the specific needs of the elderly population.
According to Wessel (2015), the increasing number of the older adults is one of the primary factors that are causing the shortage of nurses in various health facilities across the globe, particularly in developed countries like the USA. A significant increase in the number of elderly patients exerts a lot of pressure on the health care system as well as the limited available resources. Unlike younger people, older individuals are vulnerable to severe comorbidities that require close attention. Contrary to young patients, older patients need highly individualized care from various healthcare specialists such as nurse (Lira et al ., 2016). Older patients are prone to bed falling, and dementia and they require to be looked after all the time to enhance their safety. Consequently, more nurses are assigned to take care of elderly people, resulting in the shortage. The problem of the nursing shortage is made worse by the fact that a significant number of nurses are shifting to other professions due to reasons like poor working environment and remuneration.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
At the same time, the demand for home care nursing services is now increasing, and more are currently working in homes. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for instance, estimates that two million homecare nursing jobs will be needed in years to come. As a result, hospitals will continue to experience a nursing shortage as a significant number of nurses will be taking care of elderly people in their homes. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, about 25% of older people who stay at home have critical health problems such as diabetes while 50% are suffering from hypertension (Wessel, 2015). The statistics by the CDC shows that additional nurses will be required to provide homecare in 20 years, which may result in a problem if the nurse shortage is not adequately addressed.
Thus, one of the main reasons why the aging population is a problem in the nursing field is that it leads to nurse shortage that does affect not only patients but also the society at large because of the reduced quality of health care services. The nursing shortage is forcing nurses to work for long hours, making them suffer from problems such as burnout and stress (Ljungbeck & Sjögren, 2017). Long working hours also affect the mental and physical health of nurses. The nursing shortage is also a threat to patient safety, and it may force hospitals to compromise the quality of healthcare services. The nursing shortage is an issue that concerns many countries across the globe.
Apart from nursing shortage, the aging population is a problem because it requires a lot of time and resources to train and retrain nurses to provide nursing care that is tailor-made to the specific needs of elderly patients. A significant number of nurses still have the perception that their role is secondary to that of physicians. Besides, many nurses do not have the required knowledge and skills to provide care to people with terminal and chronic diseases. Moreover, providing nursing care to older patients is different from that of young patients. Therefore, to adapt to the changing trends in the care for elderly and frail patients, hospitals have to train and retrain nurses, which is costly while at the same time-consuming. For instance, the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium was established to specifically train nurses on how to adequately take care of older people in various health facilities, including homes (Wessel, 2015). Nursing colleges have also been forced to incorporate geriatric in their curriculum to cater to the emerging trend. Training a single nurse requires thousands of dollars, which may not be available to individual and hospitals. Unfortunately, in 20 years to come, almost all nurses will be needed to have some geriatric skills to be able to provide quality nursing care to the elderly and frail patients.
Nurses will also be required in the future to have soft skills apart from clinical training and practices. Future nurses will have to master effective communication and teamwork skills to be able to address the health needs of older patients. Nurses will be forced to work closely with one another and physicians, which require effective communication and teamwork skills (Wessel, 2015). Also, nurses will have to communicate effectively with elderly patients to help them deal with their conditions. The role of nurses will not be restricted to taking care of patients in the future, but they will also be required to be leaders in their respective teams and organizations (Ljungbeck & Sjögren, 2017). Like any other person, a nurse can only play an active role as a leader when he or she possesses essential skills such as effective communication, teamwork, and critical thinking.
Notably, a few nurses have the required soft skills to work in multidisciplinary teams that are designed to address the health needs of older adults. However, many nurses are ill-prepared to assume their new role and take full charge of the treatment process (Wessel, 2015). As a result, taking care of the elderly patients will be a challenge to many nurses if they fail to learn both hard and soft skills that are necessary for the changing healthcare environment. Lifelong learning, therefore, is inevitable if nurses are to adapt to the emerging health care services that are required by elderly patients. The profound change in the nursing practice that is linked to the aging population requires a significant transformation in the way nurses are trained and educated. Wessel (2015) argues that about 80% of nurses will be needed with a bachelor’s degree by 2020 because of rapidly changing roles in the nursing field. Hence, the aging population is posing new challenges to the nursing profession.
Also, to meet the needs of older patients, nurses will be required to use some medical technologies. Nurses will be required to be not only technology leaders but also innovators. Some of the chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes that are common among the elderly require the use of modern technologies during the treatment process. Nevertheless, many nurses are not familiar with modern medical technologies, and they do not know how to operate them (Wessel, 2015). Specifically, older nurses will face more challenges than their younger counterparts when it comes to the use of medical technologies to treat complex diseases affecting elderly patients. Technology will also be a problem for patients, especially when it requires self-use. Nurses will have a problem of learning how to use modern technologies and educating patients to embrace and utilize them to improve their health. As a result, nurses will be acting as educators as well, particularly concerning treating chronic diseases (Engelke & Schub, 2018). Nurses will face the problem of using modern technologies to take care of older and frail patients.
In conclusion, the aging population will pose a lot of problems and challenges to the nursing field in 20 years. It will lead to a nursing shortage and massive investment in education and technology. As a result, to reduce the future negative impact of the aging population in the nursing field, nurses should be prepared in advance to address emerging problems. Importantly, the nursing curriculum should be changed to be in line with trends such as the aging population and the need to use modern medical technologies.
References
Engelke, Z. R. M., & Schub, T. B. (2018). Patient education: Teaching the older adult with osteoarthritis. CINAHL Nursing Guide . Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr ue&db=nup&AN=T707562&site=eds-live
Lira B. C., de Freitas, M. C., Cavalcante G. M. V., da Silva, M. J., & Pedrosa L. S. F. (2016). Nursing clinical practice in the frail elderly care: Reflection study. Journal of Nursing UFPE / Revista de Enfermagem UFPE , 914–918. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.5205/reuol.6884-59404-2-SM-1.1002sup201629
Ljungbeck, B., & Sjögren F. K. (2017). Advanced nurse practitioners in municipal healthcare as a way to meet the growing healthcare needs of the frail elderly: A qualitative interview study with managers, doctors and specialist nurses. BMC Nursing , 16 , 1–9. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.1186/s12912-017-0258-7
Lube C. C., Dias. T., Cavalvanti. G., Espírito S. F. H., & dos Santos, L. (2016). Nursing care management to elderly patients: The search for evidence. Journal of Nursing UFPE / Revista de Enfermagem UFPE , 848–858. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.5205/reuol.6884-59404-2-SM-1.1002sup201620
Wessel, K. B. (2015). How an aging population is transforming nursing. Nursing , 45 (6), 52–55. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.1097/01.NURSE.0000461856.10691.da
