The aging

According to World Health Organization (WHO) the aging is a "Physiologic procces that begin at conception and causes characteristic changes in the specie during all its life. When we are old, this changes produce a limited adaptability of the organism in relation to its environment. The times at which these changes happen in the differents organs of the same individual or different individuals are not the sames"

In this physiologic procces which is natural, we can observe many normal changes in the body´s physical structure and function during the aging process. In addition there are also changes that indicate the onset of desease or illnes as WHO says. Knowing that, nurses have to know the difference between this physiologic changes and abnormal changes that signify aneed for medical or nursing intervention. Although most older adults experience one or more chronic problems like arthritis, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, cencer heart disease etc. 

The five leading causes of death among older adults are:

TOP 5

1	Heart disease
2	Cancer
3	Cardiovascular disease
4	Pneumonia
5	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

All things considered, we can observe that the costs of health care have increased dramatically in recent years due to life expectancy has increased, of course, there are other elements  that increase the cost but they are not so strinkin. For this reasons, I think that is necessary to change the health care model because it is untenable. From my point of view we should spend more money on prevention activities since ultimately it will be the best solution. There were more healty people and the health will be cheaper. For example if we warn the high blood pressure of a man,   he won´t have to take pills and will not have to spend so much money on drugs.

Bibliography

Definition of an older or elderly person. World Health Organization; 2012. Available in: http://www.who.int/healthinfo/survey/ageingdefnolder/en/

Geriatric Nursing

Geriatric and gerontology

During this blog I am going to talk about geriatric and gerontology but What does it mean?

well, on one hand GERIATRIC, is the medical specialty that deals with the physiology of aging and with the diagnosis and treatmen of diseases affecting the aged. And on the other hand, GERONTOLOGY is the study of all aspects of the aging process which affects ours society in general like health care, education, business... Nowadays, gerontologycal investigation are considered one of the most important in supporting research in different countries.

Therefore geriatric nursing is the nurse specialist who provides service and nursing care for the elderly, being able to teach, supervise, investigate, manage and lead the care for this group in complex situations that also serves as an advisor in every levels of the socio-sanitary system. 

But Why do we need geriatric nursing? 
The increase of the elderly population and the increasing demand for care by this group justify themselves, the importance of geriatric nursing specialty. Besides that, from my point of view, a normal nurse is not really cualificated to care elderly people, is necesary that all nurses who works in nursing homes or even in a Health Care Center, are specialized in geriatric. I think that due to the complexity of nursing elderly care and generally the length thereof, require a level of professional competence (knowledge, attitudes, and specialized skills) that are not covered in the basic training.

The problem that i observe is that this kind of job is not really atractive for nurses in general.   I mean, for example, i love emergencies and i would like to work in ambulance or in a hospital because i consider myself an active person so really working with elderly people sounds me more "boring"or less exciting. I do not know if really it is the problem but i know that we need more people who are interested in geriatric care than in other specialities because life expectancy is increasing so is needed more and more people specialized in this kind of care.

Bibliography

Hoffmann G. Trends and Issues. Basic Geriatric Nursing 5th Edition. Missouri: Elsevier; 2012. p 1-27.