To be blunt, the frail elderly population tends to be devalued in American society. Since 78 million Baby Boomers are aging and will be added to the ranks of the elderly population during the coming decades, I sincerely hope that their expectations and experiences will contribute to placing a more positive spin on aging in America. Something must be done.
SpecialtiesGeriatricArticle
During the many years that I have spent browsing these forums, I have noticed a common theme regarding the preconceived notions that many people in healthcare have expressed about long term care (LTC) and the elderly population in general. To be straightforward, my observations can be disheartening at times, but I believe that they reflect deeper attitudes about society's feelings toward aged people in America.
For starters, I have observed that LTC is sometimes viewed as the specialty of last resort for newly graduated nurses who cannot seem to secure employment anywhere else. I have read too many posts to count where the new grad will write, "I cannot get hired at my favorite community hospital, so I suppose I'll try to get hired at one of the local nursing homes."
I have also worked with a considerable number of these nurses during my years spent in LTC. They had ambitious plans of working in the fast-paced emergency department or the high-pressure critical care environment while in nursing school, but now they push medication carts at nursing homes with their passion gone and their dreams deferred.
Now that I am out of the LTC environment, I see firsthand how some nurses in other specialties view 'nursing home patients' and 'those nursing home nurses.' A handful of nurses who work in more acute specialties have referred to demented elderly patients with names that I cannot type due to their offensive nature.
Some also think that LTC nurses deal with less stress and lack the assessment and procedural skills that all 'hospital nurses' have. However, at least half of my colleagues in LTC had extensive acute care hospital experience in areas such as medical/surgical nursing, telemetry, ortho, ICU, acute rehab, and other specialties. Let's not forget the testy attitudes that LTC nurses sometimes receive from EMS personnel when attempting to get elderly residents transferred to a more acute level of care.
In my humble opinion, the attitudes about LTC being the nursing specialty of last resort tend to reflect society's generally negative opinions regarding the frail elderly population.
Much value is placed on the lives of infants, children, and younger adults. However, older people are often devalued in American society. We can see the bias toward youthful populations come to life when we tell the public where we work.
For instance, many people become excited at the very idea of a nurse who works in postpartum, pediatrics, trauma, the emergency department, reproductive medicine, the NICU, PICU, labor & delivery, or other specialties where a higher proportion of younger patients end up. On the other hand, these same individuals respond with far less enthusiasm when they discover that the nurse is employed in an area where many elderly patients are seen, such as rehab, long term care, geri-psych, hospice, assisted living, adult day care, or oncology.
I'll reaffirm that LTC can be a very rewarding area if the nurse has a passion for helping the geriatric population during their golden years. Since 78 million Baby Boomers are aging and will be added to the ranks of the elderly population during the coming decades, I can only hope that their experiences will place a more positive spin on aging in America.
