CARE OF THE OLDER ADULT
1st Semester: Week 1
Introduction to Gerontology
Why should you be interested in Gerontology?
• Gerontology is a growing field that will become
important over the next 30 years
• The number of older persons in the world’s
population is high than it has ever been and it will
be as medical progress extends our lifetime
Global Demographics
Meaning that there will be 1 elderly person in every 8
earth’s inhabitants
In 2015 it increased _____
- By Year-end 2018 there will be 8,013,059 Filipinos
over 60 constituting 8.2% of Filipinos. OF this age
group 5,082,049 will be 65 and older.
- Most countries are considered aging if they have
at least 7% of the population over 65 years old
- The study predicted that the percentage of elderly
people (65 and above) in the Philippines will most
likely grow to 4.9% by 2020; by 5.6% by 2025
and 6.3% by 2030.
- Given the rise in ageing population with
concomitant disability, the demand for an
aggressive and responsive health services in the
continuum of geriatric care will increase.
Expanding career opportunities
• Fastest growing age-group: 80 years old and
above (very old)
o These trends will result in a demand for
professionals with knowledge and expertise in
aging
o There is a need for us to be better equipped
with knowledge and expertise in terms of the
aging population
• Expanded career opportunities in Gerontology and
Geriatrics are foremost in many disciplines and
professionals
• Stimulating challenging field-
o The field of aging is very diverse, offering
many different employment opportunities.
o This diversity exists because older persons are
very different from each other in many ways.
o As we age, our experiences, needs, resources,
and abilities varies according to gender, race,
ethnicity, and economic status.
Multidisciplinary Opportunities
a. Service Provider – coordinating information with
doctors and families; serve as link, referrals
b. Health Provider – providing hospital care, day
care, home care to older people; bathing, feeding,
budgeting/finances
c. Educator – you may teach a course on work and
retirement; skills they can use (if able to work)
d. Researcher – study the relationship between
maintenance of friendships network and the
mental and physical health of older person.
ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING
o A series of basic activities performed by
individuals on a daily basis necessary for
independent living at home or in the
community.
o Includes: Bathing, Dressing, Toileting, Feeding,
Continence, Transferring
- For those incontinent, we can be changing
diapers or inserting FBC’s (Fully bag
catheter), if needed
- Transferring – only if needed
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CARE OF THE OLDER ADULT
1st Semester: Week 1
INSTRUMENTAL ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING
o Activities related to independent living and
include preparing meals and managing money,
shopping for groceries or personal items,
performing light or heavy housework, doing
laundry, and using a telephone.
o Perform if needed; not very common in the
Philippines

ASSISTED LIVING FACIILITY

• A system of housing and limited care that is
designed for senior citizens who need some
assistance with daily activities but do not require
care in a nursing home.
• Residents in an assisted living community
generally require custodial care.
• Residents in a nursing home require a round-the-
clock care and monitoring. They typically live with
more complex healthcare conditions that require
assistance of a nurse
FINANCIAL GERONTOLOGY
• Is another emerging subfield that combines
knowledge of financial planning and services with
a special expertise in the needs of older adults
• Intellectual intersection of two fields: gerontology
and finance, each of which has a practitioner and
academic components
• Financial planning is important to prepare for
cases of hospitalization
GERONTOLOGY
• Is a broad term used to define the study of aging,
or the aged. This includes the biophysical aspects
of aging.
• Under the umbrella of gerontology are several
subfields including geriatrics, Social gerontology,
geropsychology (refers to mental or maturity),
geopharmacology, financial gerontology,
gerontological nursing, and gerontological
rehabilitation nursing, to name a few
• As the knowledge on pharmacology in relation to
older adults develops, there are some medication
readily available for client to swallow the pill
• Drug to drug interaction is important as well since
most of them have 8 or more medications in a day
(sometimes 8 in one time) as part of our
advocacy, we should know how to trace out
medications and how it can affect their bodies
• Many facets including social, policy, psychological,
physiology, and physical
• Policy Gerontology – changes in policies pertaining
to older population
o what are the rules that can help the older
population (hospitalization and everyday living)
• Psychological Gerontology – more on development
of maturity and even the loss of memory or
changes in neurological status of our patients
• Gerontology can be interchanged with geriatrics,
especially for the nursing field
GERIATRICS
• Geriatric Medicine, is a specialty that focuses on
healthcare of elderly people
DIFFERENCE OF GERONTOLOGY AND
GERIATRICS
1. Multidisciplinary and is concerned with physical,
mental and social aspects and implications of
aging
2. Geriatrics is a medical specialty focused in care
and treatment of diseases of old people
3. Although gerontology and geriatrics have different
emphasis, they both have the goal of
understanding aging so that people can maximize
their functions and achieve a higher quality of life
GERONTOLOGY ENCOMPASSES THE FF.:
1. Studying physical, mental, and social changes in
people as they age
2. Investigating the biological aging process itself
including the causes of aging, it’s effects and
mechanism
3. Investigating the social and psychosocial impact of
aging - sociogerontology.
4. Investigating the interface of biological aging and
age-related diseases – geroscience. (how aging
works)
5. Investigating the effects of an aging society.
6. Applying their knowledge to policies and programs
– macroscopic (government planning) and
microscopic (running a nursing home).

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GERONTOLOGICAL NURSING
• Falls within the discipline of nursing and the scope
of nursing practice.
• Most important role is being an advocate
o Health promotion and health maintenance
• It involves nurses advocating for the health of
older persons at all levels of prevention.
• Gerontology nurses work with healthy elderly
persons in their communities, acutely ill elders
requiring hospitalization and treatment, and
chronically ill or disabled elders in long term care
facilities, skilled care, home care and hospice.
GERONTOLOGICAL REHABILITATION NURSING
• Combines expertise in gerontological nursing with
rehabilitation concepts and practice
• Purpose is to assist older persons regain and
maintain the highest level of function and
independence possible while preventing
complications and enhancing quality of life
GEROPHARMACOLOGY
• Study of Pharmacology as it relates to older
adults. The credential for a pharmacist certified in
geropharmacology is CGP (Certified Geriatric
Pharmacist)
• Certain substances that may delay aging
o Ex. Collagen and creams
▪ Decrease in fertility in both men and
women though it is easily observed in
women due to menopause
▪ Late in males; able to reproduce as long as
the reproductive function is still intact
o Intrinsic inevitable, irreversible age-related
process of loss of viability and increase in
vulnerability.
TO BE CONSIDERED NORMAL 4 CONDITIONS
MUST BE MET:
a. Universal – that is it occurs in all members of the
species to a certain degree
b. Progressive – changes occur gradually over time
c. Irreversible – one can slow down the processes of
aging, but it continues no matter what the
intervention
d. Deleterious – Which means it gets progressively
worse.
After 30 years changes occur that reflect normal
decline in organ system

GEROPSYCHOLOGY
• A branch of psychology concerned with helping
older adults and their families maintain well-being,
overcome problems, and achieve maximum
• Adult life reaches a plateau with steady changes
potential during later life
• The healthier the lifestyle, the slower the decline
• Concerns if elderly client can solve his/her
towards disability
problems
• Unhealthy lifestyle = faster disability
o If they can think about their problems since
some have a childish or childlike attitude • Rehabilitation is necessary since it may go above
disability threshold and prevent further disabilities
o More on maturity in decision making
o Ex. Chronic smoke and bad diet = as you age,
CLASSIFICATIONS faster decline towards disability threshold
• OLD
GERONTOLOGISTS VIEW AGING IN 4
o Over 65 years of age.
PROCESSES
− Young Old: 65-74
1. Chronological Aging – on the basis of a person’s
− Middle Old: 75-84
years from birth
− Old Old: 85 and up (Frail elderly)
2. Biological Aging – refers to the physical changes
*Frail/Frailty: Weak and delicate
that reduces the efficiency
• AGING
3. Psychological Aging – includes the changes that
o Progressive functional decline
occur in sensory and perceptual processes, mental
o Gradual deterioration of physiological function
functioning (Memory, Learning, Intelligence),
with age
personality, drives and motives
▪ it happens over time; as your age
4. Social Aging – refers to individual’s changing
increases, the deterioration of your
roles and relationships on the social structure with
function will further progress
family and friends, within organizations, and with
o Decreased in fecundity
the whole world.

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CARE OF THE OLDER ADULT
1st Semester: Week 1
- Example. Working age surrounded with work
friends but circle becomes smaller as you grow
older; even within the family, with the changes • Evaluate and assess: does the older patient really
of the biological aspects, relations change with
the family.
AGES CAN BE DIVIDED BY DECADE
- Dinarian – 10-19 years old
- Vicenarian – 20-29 years old
- Tricenarian – 30-39 years old
- Quadragenarian – 40-49 years old
- Quinquagenarian – 50-59 years old
- Sexagenarian – 60-69 years old
- Septuagenarian – 70-79 years old
- Octogenarian – 80-89 years old
- Nonagenarian – 90-99 years old
- Centenarian – 100 years old
- Supercentenarian – over 110 years old
SOCIAL GERONTOLOGY
• Concerned mainly with the social aspects of aging
versus the biological or psychological
• Understands how the biological process influence
the social aspects of aging
LIFE EXPECTANCY
• It is the average number of years that a person
can be expected to live.
• At Birth
o Male – 67.3 years
o Female – 78.2
• At 60 years
o male – 17 years
o Female – 19 years
▪ Biologically – higher mortality of male
fetuses and male infants, inhibiting effects
of estrogen
• Socially – earlier in the century, more men than
women die among elderly.
• Reversal of sex ratio is the result in recent
phenomenon:
o Lifestyle
o Exposure to hazardous work
o War
o Homicide
o Accidents – sea, land, air
o Life Expectancy at 1 yr. - 6yrs. – greater for
female infants
• In 2012, 53.8% are older women as percentage of
the population aged 60+
AGEISM
• Is a stereotype and prejudice against individual or
groups because of age.
• Common because when we think of an older
person, we assume that old people have trouble
with vision or hearing or altered neurological
processes, baby talk
have this?
LONGEVITY
• The period of time an organism is expected to live
under ideal circumstances.
• It is influenced by heredity and environment.
SENESCENCE
• Processes by which the capacity for growth and
functions are lost over time, ultimately leading to
death.
ATTITUDES TOWARD AGING AND OLDER
ADULTS
• The way you view aging and older adults is often a
product of your environment and the experiences
to which you have been exposed
• Ageism – negative attitude toward aging and older
adults- arise from negative experience with them.
ROLES OF THE GERONTOLOGICAL NURSE
1. Provider of Care – nurse gives direct, hand-on-
care to older adults I a variety of settings
− The nurse should be educated about disease
processes and syndromes commonly seen in
older persons
− This may include knowledge of risk factors,
sings and symptoms, usual medical treatment,
rehabilitation and end-of-life care
2. Teacher – essential part of all nursing is teaching
− They focus their teaching on modifiable risk
factors and health promotion. Many diseases
and debilitating conditions of aging can be
prevented through lifestyle modifications such
as healthy diet, smoking cessation, weight
maintenance, increased physical activity, and
stress management
− Nurses may develop expertise in specialized
areas and teach skills to other nurses in order
to promote quality patient care among older
adults
− Teach skills to other people as well
3. Manager – balance concerns of the patient,
family, nursing and the rest of the interdisciplinary
team
− Must be skilled in leadership, time
management, building relationships,
communication, and managing change
− Supervise other nursing personnel including
licensed practical nurse, certified nursing
assistant, and other unlicensed assistive
personnel
4. Advocate – becoming the voice and
representative for our patient
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CARE OF THE OLDER ADULT
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− acts on behalf of older adults to promote their o Human Diversity
best interest and strengthen their autonomy o Global Healthcare
and decision making o Healthcare System and Policies
− Does not mean making decisions for older • Role development
adults. But empowering them to remain o Provider of care
independent and retain dignity, even in difficult o Designer/manager/coordinator of care
situations o Member of a profession
− Ex. Decisions on end-of-life care
5. Research Consumer – using evidence-based
practice
− must remain abreast (alongside) of current
research literature, reading and putting into
practice the results of reliable and valid studies
− Using evidence based practice, nurses can
improve the quality of patient care in all
settings
− Attending seminars and workshops,
participating in professional organizations,
pursuing additional formal education or
degrees and obtaining certification
− Once you become RNs, you are required to
join the Philippine Nurses Association
− If you want to be a geriatric nurse, you need
to be a part of GNAP – Geriatric Nurses
Association of the Philippines

CORE COMPETENCIES
• Provide a foundation of added knowledge and
skills necessary for the nurse to implement in daily
practice
• Knowledge, skills, and attitude that are essential
for excellent clinical nursing practice with older
adults

THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES OF

NURSING (AACN) ESSENTIALS OF
BACCALAUREATE EDUCATION FOR
PROFESSIONAL NURSING PRACTICE
• Framework to help nurse educators integrate
specific nursing content into their programs
• Core Competencies
o Critical Thinking
o Communication
o Assessment
o Technical Skills
• Core Knowledge
o Health Promotion, Risk Education, and Disease
Prevention
o Illness and Disease Management
o Information and Health Care Technologies
▪ Ex. Bracelets which identify that the elderly
patient has dementia, hospital bathrooms
with call buttons in cases of emergencies
or accidents
o Ethics
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