You know, when all these Baby Boomer aged health care professionals finally retire, do you believe the next generations will be enough, to 'care' for the Baby Boomers, such a huge generation of people?
Also, do you think that the percentages of young students going into and sticking with nursing is as high as in earlier days?
There are so many other ways to make money, and with all of the cut backs and the unforgiving nature of nursing, do you forsee a big problem with getting adequate numbers of nurses to staff facilities?
Specializes in critical care, ER,ICU, CVSURG, CCU.
Oh Lordy, your question has so very many merits...... That is why I will work as long as physical and cognition permits, and darn glad I have a paid for 88ac farm......
it could get messy
lord young nurses, I sincerely wish you best success...
1 out of 5 has DIAGNOSED diabetes, 40% obese, >50% prevalence of DIAGNOSED HTN. That's not cancer or OA. These are classical diseases brought up by indulgences of modern American lifestyle. Yet, for every chronic disease except Alzheimer, the life expectation is increasing - in other words, these people live longer despite of being chronically sick. The expendures from all sources to support all those people are rising accordingly. Despite of several causes for cautious optimism, like more seniors hitting gyms and less of them smoking (which gave some the thought abouut naming boomers "the healthiest generation": The Status of Baby Boomers' Health in the United States | Cardiology | JAMA Internal Medicine | The JAMA Network) there is still a fact: this generation contains a lot of chronically sick people.
Now, if you ask where all these sick people go to, you'll see precisely what Commuter said: according to Medicare (2013), out of 10.000 beneficiaries, 930 receied Home health Skilled care, 670 were in SNF, 99.7 inpatient rehab and 36.8 in LTACH (the latter part not being even in existence 30 years ago, as there were no such thing as "critically chronically sick"). Overall, out of 10.000 Medicare beneficiaries, in 2013 over 17% received continous medical care, without which they wouldn't last long (JAMDA.
I did my last semester clinical in rural Michigan in a IM clinic with 70% Medicare/Medicaid population. The mean age was around 57, and the mean number of drugs per patient on an audit was 7, with 60% of patients receiving at least one with high addiction potential. In my current place, we normally have boomers supposed to take 40 to 50 pills a day, thanks to local "teaching facility". We had to refuse to see a few patients every working day because they demand all their "pain and nerve pills" to be filled at once for 3 months or so while they are going to Arisona.
You may be not like these people (like I am absolutely not so many women of my generation), but the facts are here: too many Boomers are getting sick and sicker, and now this is too late to do anything effective with that. Their HTN, DM and such had to be treated in 1990th at the latest to get some positive outcomes.
thank you that
i fall thru your "filter grids"
0ne needs to prepare for the shape they may end up in......
Just got over six weeks of great misery with pneumonia and ear complications. Now you tell me I'm looking at what I would have called premature institutionalization because I'm a boomer? OMG...
Used to be that about 5% of over-65s were in SNFs. Has that percentage really changed, or is it just the raw numbers that are up?
Among Medicare beneficiaries, in 2013 17% received skilled continous care. Which means they were either in SNF or short way somewhere near.
That is the reason why I allow myself a piece of cake twice a year All my family has or had diabetes already, and I have zero wish to join the party and share happiness of trice-a-day fingersticks.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
Now you tell me I'm looking at what I would have called premature institutionalization because I'm a boomer? OMG...
To be fair, many of the Baby Boomer-aged nursing facility residents in my area are what we'd call the "healthcare homeless." As young and middle-aged adults, they often lived day-to-day existences for many years in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs (farm hands, restaurant servers, cashiers) and never saved for retirement.
If it hadn't been for a nursing home or personal care group home, these Boomers would be on the streets because they're too sick to work and have no savings or retirement funds to survive on. They're often too young to collect social security.
The bottom-rated facilities in the city where I live have astute admissions managers who can conjure up medical necessity for indigent Boomers so they qualify to stay long term at the nursing home. Just pick a health condition: diabetes, chronic kidney disease, ETOH dementia, degenerative joint disease, liver cirrhosis, you name it.
Dang! This post is scary. Realistic for this boomer here with some problems as discussed.
Very thoughtful and sobering responses from PPs.
I hear ya but believe being realistic even if its uncomfortable is far better than living in denial and having things taken out of our control because we didn't plan for the what ifs. No easy answers I guess.
Specializes in long term care Alzheimers Patients.
My guess is more and more unlicensed personnel will be added to do the basics. The majority of young-ins I'm in contact with don't seem to have any interest in being an actual nurse
Personally I'm not too worried as my iron-clad advanced directive pretty much guarantees I'll contract some sort of bug or condition, not treat it and croak hopefully in a brief amount of time.
Masses of Baby Boomers have already been entering the healthcare system over the past couple of decades. However, they've trickled into the system instead of swamped it all at once. For instance, my Boomer mother, age 58, spent several weeks in a hospital before succumbing to her multiple health problems last month.
Countless Boomers who engaged in hard living in their youth (e.g. unhealthy lifestyles, drugs, heavy smoking) are the 50-somethings and 60-somethings who now live in nursing homes and personal care group homes permanently due to major CVAs and/or being noncompliant diabetics. Many diabetic Boomer nursing home residents are disabled due to bilateral limb amputations, chronic dialysis, etc.
Prior to the 1970s, the average nurse remained in the profession for a whopping five to seven years before exiting. The profession was filled by youngish females who left nursing once they married and/or had their first child.
Nowadays, an increasing number of people pursue nursing due to changes in society. Many men in this day and age no longer earn enough money to support a wife and several children on one income, so the housewife pathway is closed off to most women. Also, nursing is seen as one of those careers that leads directly to gainful employment after graduation.
There are more than enough nurses to adequately staff all of the facilities in the U.S. as I type this post. However, the bean counters at healthcare facilities would rather engage in short-staffing for reasons that would render this post lengthier than it already is.
First, let me begin by expressing my sincere condolences on the loss of your mother...(((HUGS)))
I am a baby boomer and I have lost so many of my classmates due to reasons listed in your thread, and I haven't reached the middle 50s yet. I feel the outlook on the care that those of who will survive to become elderly is very grim if a lot of these young nurses do not wise up. I am a med-surg nurse who is constantly floated to the ER, where I see more than just minor, harmless medication errors. I see patients who come in through the hands of several "ER" nurses to get to me with blood sugars in the 30's; I see patients with blood clots who's nurse prefers to argue about giving an anticoagulant instead of simply retrieving the meds and injecting the patient, which would take less time than explaining why it has not been giving (if you're on the phone giving report on this patient, you've had/have time to give the medication specific to the diagnosis); I've also seen a 'supposedly' stable patient with active chest pain and heart rate in the 190s (with a planned cardiac procedure for the next day) attempted at being passed off as a med-surg patient; and the killer is I've seen its med-surg nurses sent into the ER clearly as warm bodies while management blatantly turns a blind eye to this and the above issues. And I've seen this as recently as within the past three months.
Will baby-boomers receive proper care? In my experience, we'll be fortunate if we die on enroute to the hospital. At least that will enable us to avoid suffering at the hands of those who'd rather look great in a Greys Anatomy set of scrubs during one's demise and watching facebook videos instead of looking a little worn after working diligently to save a life. This may sound a little extreme, but this is inevitable if these folks don't shape up and if management doesn't step up.
The culture of nursing has changed and in many ways, it is not for the better. The acceptance in our profession leaves a lot to be desired.
Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.
Commuter - my condolences also.
Interesting thread. I am on the tail end of the boomer generation at age 54 and I am sure glad I don't fit the dire mold presented here. I have had borderline BP and cholesterol since I was 20, and i do take one RX for the HTN so it is well controlled. I work every day, exercise every day, eat healthfully 85% of the time. I am overweight, but nowhere close to obese. I dont have DM. My older brother and sister take no meds and are vegan and active. I look around me and I don't see this dire picture of most of my same age group peers.
I just wonder if working in hospitals and nursing homes you only see the worst of the generation? I hope so. Those numbers quoted are very scary and I truly hope they are skewed.
I have noticed in my little suburban neighborhood 2 dialysis centers have popped up. Seems so weird because theses are neighborhoods of predominantly young growing families with a sprinkling of my age group and majority white population so not the increased DM risk you see in the AA and Hispanic populations. These centers do not seem busy at all, but it sure makes me wonder if they are expecting an avalanche of people in my area with chronic kidney disease...........
All my family has or had diabetes already, and I have zero wish to join the party and share happiness of trice-a-day fingersticks.
Realistic for this boomer here with some problems as discussed.
amoLucia
7,736 Posts
Dang! This post is scary.
Realistic for this boomer here with some problems as discussed.
Very thoughtful and sobering responses from PPs.