Nursing: Stages of Life and the Influence of Age in Healthcare

Nursing
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Nursing
According to Hazra et al., (2018), the age of an individual determines how the person will perceive communication from caregivers. Age does influence the way a patient communicates with a physician or the way the physician will handle the patient. For instance, unlike the younger patients, the older patients would most likely prefer the continuity of care with a caregiver. Hazra et al. (2018) state that since older patients have quite complex and challenging situations, physicians would use a different approach to them. Clinicians would have more direct and interactive communication with older patients compared to younger patients. Communication is vital in ensuring better patient outcomes in healthcare (Hazra et al., 2018). Healthcare providers need to work on improving patient-provider communication by treating every age group with the care they deserve.
71-year-old Catherine suffering from a chronic lung disease gave her personal experience with the healthcare system. She admitted that her stage-of-life somehow affected how she interacted with healthcare professionals. She stated that because she was concerned with her health condition, she tried so much to engage the nurses regularly (T. Catherine, personal communication, August 5, 2020). They would always try to convey to her any information regarding her health in the simplest way possible. She felt like the healthcare professionals tried the best they could to maintain a friendly environment. It helped her to open up most times about how she was feeling and her concerns about her health condition. She mentioned that she was most satisfied with the kind of treatment she got from her healthcare providers.
Catherine also appreciated the amount of care and attention she received during her checkups (T. Catherine, personal communication, August 5, 2020). The healthcare professionals were like her companion: always checking on her. Sometimes the care and attention she received while in the hospital surpassed that which she received at home (T. Catherine, personal communication, August 5, 2020). She felt like the physicians understood her unique needs and attended to them more promptly. Often the friendly hospital environment facilitated her recovery as well as discharge. Catherine admitted that both the administration and staff were able to fulfill her needs by creating a better environment with proper care (T. Catherine, personal communication, August 5, 2020). The friendly physical environment did have an impact on how she responded to medical treatment.
Other than the nursing trainees who seemed less concerned with her needs, the rest of the nurses and physicians offered her emotional support. Though there is no cure for chronic lung disease, Catherine felt that the nurses did all they could to control its symptoms. The nurses did all they could to manage the disease, ...