Wild Card: Elderly Population

Amazingly, the elderly population in most states is growing at an alarming rate. Along with growing, the elderly population is living longer lives and longer due to improved medical care and treatments for numerous maladies. The healthcare provided for the elderly varies and constantly changes all over the world. To decide on the best type of care is challenging for the elderly. Like everyone else they like to have a variety of choices when it comes to their healthcare.

When a number of elderly patients are treated at a healthcare facility they usually expect to be seen for their chronic disease or simple cold. Furthermore, they want their health care provider to take time to treat them properly. Many elderly patients complain that their provider is not very interested in their health so they feel lie they are cast aside by the provider who may spped through the examination during the appointment. The elderly population need to be able to express their concerns, symptoms, and ask questions just like any other patients.

Unfortunately, when elders are scheduled to have an operation they experience insecurities since the hospital may be a scary experience as it is for many patients. It is believed that an elder has a good experience that it could help them to have a good recovery. In addition, going home to continue recovering can be an advantage for elders since most of them are more comfortable and treatments can be done at their homes by a nurse or health care provider such as therapy, which helps alleviate traveling to and from a health care facility as well as the possibly of exposure to others who are already sick.

Overall, I think it is very imperative for elders to be provided with the best medical service since they have needs and wants like everyone else. Due to the fact that more individuals are living to be elders, their should be more health care workers trained in the proper care of elderly patients so they will not feel like nobody cares and treats them any kind of way. By being provided with better health care along with great attitudes could really help the elderly population feel more secure and satisfied when they are going for a regular doctor's appointment or being admitted for surgery.

Wild Card: Homeless Elders

A topic that does not crosss our minds often in regards to the elderly is homelessness. Unfortunately, elders are increasing at an alarming number with being homeless. Many elders are at risk of being homeless that many have been diagnosed with many ailments such as hypertension, circulatory complications, diabetes, and cardiac disease. Due to the fact that they are homeless numerous elders are not worrying about their health but instead finding a safe place to sleep every night.

Homeless elders who do not have much social support from family and friends are more prone to dementia, and other illnesses that are mental. A demented elder may have memory problems, bad judgement, cognitive impairment, and poor comprehension. Also depression can make it complicative for follow-ups that are important for secoure housing. Both of these conditions may threaten an eldery person's housing situation that may be stable, i.e. non-payment due to memory loss or create an unsafe environment in a home like leaving the stove on, which leads to an elder losing his or her home.

Homeless elders encounter the same barriers as young: lack of awareness of resources, lack of transportation, and to obtain services go through long application processes. For an elder overcoming these concerns are more difficut since they are experiencing chronic medical condtions, have poor health, poor mobility, and limitations that are linked to aging. These issues are considered external barriers since they are physical while internal barriers are what a person's believes in based on their environment.

Fortunately, there are services that provide care for the homeless, intensive care management, which is essential for stable housing. While living in a better living situation, health services will be seeked as well as behavior services. Once an elder is stable, check ups will be continued by a case management provider that icludes social and case manages to guarantee that the elderly individual is able to take care of themselves.

I thought this article was a great to blog about since lots of people faile to recognize that there are just as many old people as young people who are probably worse off since their health may be declining. Hopefully as a society, we can all improve our communities by encouraging the homeless to get back on track by taking better care of themselves, seeking the help the need by a services that provide it whether it is housing as well as health services. Basically this support would eliminate barriers in hopes of accomplishing improved health and housing stability amongst the homeless especially with the elderly.

Elderly Drivers

Yes, I believe that Florida should definitely adopt mandatory testing of drivers over the age of 65. By adopting this test it will help prevent many deaths of the elders, 65-75 years of age since motor vehicle are the leading cause of accidental death for those in this age bracket. Moreover the elders, 75 years of age and older elders are being killed in automobile accidents since it is the second leading cause of death; therefore, the age group of elders, 75 years old and older need to be monitored more. Even if an elder has not been involved in an automobile accident in old age or in an accident that was not their fault, they still need to checked because many may be in denial and it is much better to be safe than sorry.

States have tried a range of approaches but for the most part they have struggled to establish exact requirements for determining when seniors should be kept off the road while being fair to older drivers who are capable of operating automobiles. Majority of the states do not require older drivers to renew their driver's license in person at the DMV but two states, Illinois and New Hampshire require the elderly to pass road test that are critical in identifying drivers whose mental health and physical ability has diminished over the years.

Based on recent studies, 1994 to 2004, by Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, fatatlity rates are climbing to an alarming rate after age 65. The ages 75 to 84, the rate of about three deaths per 100 million miles driven is equal to the death rate of teenage drivers. Drivers 85 and older, fatalities are soaring to almost nearly four times higher than that for teens.

According to USA Today, normal aging causes complications that affect driving amongst the elderly. The following can be affected: reflexes, flexibility, visual acuity, memory, and the ability to focus all decline with age. In addition, the use of medications treat numerous illnesses that make it extremely difficult to focus and make immediate decisions while driving.

I personally think Florida should absolutely adopt mandatory testing for eldery drivers since it could dramatically decrease the number of automobile deaths in the elderly population. Due to the fact that normal aging usually result in problems that affect driving, i.e. vision or reflexes start to emerge. Therefore, elderly drivers whether capable or not should possibly be checked annually to help cut back on accidental deaths of elderly drivers as well as people who were innocent by standers or drivers. For the elderly, who know for a fact that they cannot drive due to disability family members, friends, or some reasonable priced accredited service should step into place for when they need to go to the doctor or grocery shopping.

Aging Stereotypes

When I was younger (like 12 and younger) I was not to fond of the elderly since some of them took longer with maneuvering around, experienced memory problems, and sometimes needed assistance due to disability or maladies. Also, some of the old people at the time were in and out of hospitals, different family members homes, or nursing homes that somewhat bothered me with how dependent and frail they appeared to be.

Now that I am much older, wiser, and majoring in health sciences I have a better perspective on older individuals. In today's time there are some to many old people living longer, healthier, and independent lives due to medication, proper diet, people having regular check ups with their physicians, and physically active, and overall people taking their health more seriously that is very essential to surviving longer.

There are several elderly males and females who have caught my attention over the years, but my grandmothers stand out more to me since they do not look so old, believe in keeping themselves healthy with doctor visits, and being active, i.e. exercise. They are both sane and able to take care of of themselves. They constantly inspire me to take better care of myself so that if I'm fortunate to live to be an old woman that I will be in good shape physically as well as mentally.

Some common views of aging stereotypes are: that many of the elderly population are sickly, not good drivers, they move slower, experience memory loss, and are mean. However, there are some or perhaps even many older people who do not fall under this category and are in fact the opposite of the common perceptions of aging stereotypes. According to an aging stereotype article, in today's era many of the elderly have proven that not all of the stereotypes are true since many of them are living healthier, independent, and longer lifestyles. My personal outlook on what old is has definitely changed especially since some older people are able to function like they are 30 or 40 years old when in reality they are like in their 60's, 70's, or older.

Case: Right to Refuse to Participate in Abortion

Health care providers have the right to refuse to participate in abortions and can abstain from participating in abortions based on their conscience, religion, or moral belief. In Missouri case, Doe verses Peoler, the city was ordered to obtain the services of physcians and personnel who had no moral objections with being involved in abortions. Additionally the city was required to pay the pantiff's attorney's fees because of the deliberate disregard of the destitute woman's rights and the continuation of a policy to disregard and/or avoid the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings on abortion.

What are the ethical and legal issues in this case? The ethical issues raised in this case are the following: from the plaintiff’s perspective it may be ethical for her to follow through with her abortion since it may be for a life threatening reason such as her losing her life. Also, the person may believe it is not the right time to have a child since they may be too young, their parents or significant other opinions factoring into the matter. In addition the person may have been raped by an unknown person and doesn’t want to go through with having a child from an anonymous person not knowing his family health history, nationality, and the fact of not having the father in the child’s life. Ultimately autonomy plays a role in this woman’s decisions. On the other hand, the health care provider has a right to refuse to participate in abortions due to their on morals, beliefs, and conscience if they are not comfortable with the decision the patient wants as in this scenario so the caregiver should assist the patient with finding someone else to help the patient follow their wishes that hopefully were well thought out with other alternatives and consequences.

From the caregivers perspective they have a right to refuse to participate in certain aspects of patient care and treatment. In this case with Doe verse Poelker in Missouri, a conflict with the caregiver’s cultural, ethical, and/or religious beliefs. However, in an attempt to honor the staff member’s rights, a patient’s health must not be compromised which in a way is a way of being beneficence and nonmaleficence. If a caregiver cannot administer or refuse to administer care it should be addressed with an organization’s ethics committee for review and consultative advice. Things that can cause a conflict of interest would be blood products, taking place in elective abortions, and end-of-life matters like a respirator. Also, in my opinion if a caregiver is not going to provide the patient with the best quality of care then they should not participate in the patients care. The patient would most likely be better off seeing another health care provider in the office or going to a different health care provider office. Unfortunately, if a caregiver refuses to treat a patient he or she may be losing out on business as well as jeopardizing their reputation as a health care provider and the patient may spread the news about what happened to them and tell others not to seek care from that provider.

Restraints on Patients

At what point does the application of restraints become cruelty? The application of restraints can become cruelty when the restraints can be placed on the patient incorrectly, meaning that the health care professional could purposely tighten the restraint so that it would cut off circulation throughout the patient’s body and a side effect would be bruising and possible health conditions could develop such as bed sores and other infections. If the health care provider were to totally ignore her or his patient that was restrained all day or throughout her or his shift, she or he would be neglecting her or his patient since as a human being he would need to eat and possibly use the bathroom so, he would need to be released from his restraints to do any of these actions. If the health care professional was being negligent and malfesance then the evidence would be obvious with the patient, left in their bed covered in their urine and feces which is not healthy or sending out a good message on behalf of this health care provider. This would show that the nurse had not checked on their patient throughout their shift and possibly did not care to check on the patient and treat them equally with the best of care. If the health care professional used the opportunity to either verbally or physically abuse their patient while they are literally defenseless, (since the patient is restrained) the professional would be classified as being cruel. Even if there is no physical evidence, if the patient is uncomfortable with the hospital staff because of threats or some form of harassment, then that is also a way of being cruel to ones patients. Therefore, a patient may be afraid to report these incidents since they think if they do, matters may worsen for them in the future by the same health care provider. Moreober, by having ones patient restrained and in their bed all day, unless ordered by the physician, the patient should have times throughout the day when they can stretch and relax without having to be forced to stay in the bed, somewhat enjoying themselves. Overall, the act of being restrained with prolonged usage, unless recommended by the doctor in charge can affect the patients mentality and overall health.

The Importance of Patient Safety

As a healthcare consumer, I was not completely satisfied with the level of patient safety practices implemented at the primary care physician’s office that I went to at the time. The phsyican was a health care provider who demonstrated malfeasance since he only cared about receiving the payment first before even treating his patients, which caused a bit of confusion since it should not be all about the money especially if the physician has not seen the patient yet. However, I guess maybe in the past a patient or two did not pay for their visit and ruined it for everyone. He made me as well as other patients wait in the examination room for about an hour to two hours, and then he would briefly ask a few questions and at the most be finish with the visit within a matter of minutes that seemed to sometimes be unbelieveable, time wasted, and money. It was like he did not want to hear about the problems we had and if I even got him to do a thorough checkup, at the most it was about 5 minutes. And since he was one room from the next so quickly he probably was not washing his hands as much as needed or using the gloves as he was supposed to be. In the end, I only went to that doctor when I was in a car accident for some pain medication, checkup, or for a prescription refill. I believe that everything needs to be improved at that facility. I would hope that before seeing each patient that the assistants and the physician himself would follow universal precautions such as hand washing for preventing the spread of germs or proper disposal of sharps for patient safety. It would be helpful to provide a questionnaire guide to ask informative questions for the patient every time they visit for feedback on the services they recieved and in case anything has changed in their life such as the addition of new medication so the physician can avoid medical mistakes which would overall make the doctor and his staff a better place where people leave happy/healthier instead of sad/unheathier. Patients have the right to be treated the same and with the best quality of care available.