GERIATRIC NURSING

Geriatrics is the speciality that study the diseases in old patients such as clinical, therapeutic and social aspects.

The objetives of geriatrics is:

• Avoid that the old person be transform in a social burden.
• Improve the patient quality life.

One of the most important work that the nurse must to do with the old patients is to promote the preventive cares because like the proverb says: it's better prevent than treat.

On the other hand, there are many differents old age situations:

• Healthy old person: it not suffer any funcional, social or mental disease.
• Sick old person: it suffers one acute disease.
• Fragile old person: it suffers one or more disease, but it can do their normal life.
• Geriatric patient: it has three or more of the following guideline: older than 75, it has many diseases, it exists mental and social pathology.

In this table of the article Definition and aim of the Geriatrics speciality. Tipology of old person and target population. you can see the differents old age situations.

Judgments:

1. Medical: COPD, ICTUS, Parkinson, dementia, if the patient take many medicines.
2. Aid: more than 80 years, intern in their houses or retirement home.
3. Social: social and family isolation, widowhood, insufficient economy.

I think this classification of the different type of old age situation doesn’t really apply in the real life. For example: when I was doing my practice in the medical center, I never heard this classification, and my nurse didn’t classify the old person like this, or the other way.

In my opinion its important to know exactly the situation of the patient and classify them, to give them the correct cares.