The aging process occurs during a person’s lifespan. Nobody can escape this process and it happens to everyone. Aging is associated with maturation, growth, and discovery (Cohen et al., 2015). Many abilities of human beings peak before the age of 30, but there are other abilities that continue to grow and develop throughout the life of a person. Most people who are over the age of 65 are healthy, fully independent, and happy while others start experiencing signs of deterioration. These changes are normal and not harmful. The hair thins and start turning gray and skins thins and it becomes less elastic and hence sagging (Rose et al., 2012). The functioning of the body organs slows down and this will continue throughout the life of the aging person. Aging results from factors such as lifestyle, genes, and diseases since they affect the rate of aging. However, this aging process can be influenced by moderate consumption of alcohol, physical activity, and dietary and nutrition factors. This paper will define the aging process in relation to the chronic illnesses, elaborate the relevance of the concept of nursing care, and discuss theories associated with aging and the holistic care applied to this concept before coming up with a conclusion.
Most the aging population has chronic diseases. In fact, it is very common to find that many older persons have at least more than one chronic disease. This implies that chronic diseases mostly affect the older individuals (Parahoo, 2012). Some of the common chronic diseases affecting the elderly are arthritis, diabetes, kidney failure, dementia, lung disease, cataracts, and glaucoma. These chronic diseases have profound negative impacts on the quality of life and health of the elderly not mentioning the financial problems and burden caused to their families (Eliopoulos, 2013). Chronic diseases contribute to aging since they affect the mobility of the elderly making their bodies weaker. However, these diseases can be avoided through healthy eating, physical exercises, and early detection and testing of these illnesses.
This concept of aging process is relevant to the nursing care since for nurses to fully take care of the needs of the elderly, they need to have a full understanding of the working of their bodies. There is a growth in the number of older people in the American population and this has a big impact on the health care in the country (Parahoo, 2012). Registered nurses and students nurses ought to have sufficient knowledge as well as positive attitudes to care for the elderly population (Eliopoulos, 2013). Most people are afraid of coming close to aging population. This negative attitude towards the elderly should end and it is high time nurses view them as normal persons. Healthcare organizations should recruit nurses that have interpersonal skills to take care of the needs of the old persons.
This concept also brings out the need for more experienced nurses to be tasked with the responsibility of taking care of this population (Parahoo, 2012). As a matter of fact, the values, attitudes, and the beliefs of the health caregivers towards the aging population adversely affects the views of those entrusted with their care and this will eventually affect the quality of care they would render (Eliopoulos, 2013). The elderly would respond positively to the treatment of chronic diseases if they are treated well by nurses. Although geriatric nursing has tried to improve the nursing care for the aging population, the diffusion of this education into mainstream nursing is taking long.
Many scholars have come up with theories trying to explain this aging process concept. The evolutionary theory of aging explains that aging is a result of a decline in the natural selection force. Natural selection occurs in those organisms that are dying as a result of predation or environmental hazards and they evolve to a lifespan that is suited for their environment (Wong, 2013). This is the reason why this theory further states that those animals that live in areas that are protected live for longer years and they may realize their maximum life span.
Free radical theory of aging also tries to explain the reason as to why people grow old. According to this theory of aging, endogenous oxygen radicals’ accumulation in the cells could be the reason as to why living beings get old and die eventually (Wong, 2013). Mitochondria were found to be responsible for initiation of the free-radical reactions associated with the aging process. The lifespan of a person is determined by extending at which mitochondria has been damaged. Older living things are associated with an increased in oxidative stress and this is as a result of an imbalance between antioxidants defenses and free radical production (Light, 2012). This, therefore, shows that the identification of free radical reactions as the main cause of aging process should make the caregivers come up with factors that inhibit and limit the formation of these reactions to reduce the rate of aging.
Consequently, gene regulation theory also explains the aging process in living beings. According to this theory, aging occurs as a result of changes in the gene expression (Siemens, 2014). This is explained by the presence of genetic manipulations to increase the life span of an organism like yeast and fruit flies. The genes that are responsible for aging are in a position to reverse the inexorable expression of disorder in molecular (Light, 2012). The genome is responsible for governing the biological maintenance and development. The gene expression modulates the aging process.
Telomere theory of aging shows that aging occurs due to cell senescence. This is the process that takes place in normal human beings cells that are mostly associated with the limited division of cells (Siemens, 2014). The telomeres being specialized DNA sequences are located at the rare ends of eukaryotic chromosomes and they are responsible for stabilizing these ends through binding proteins to stop proteins from being detected as double-stranded breaks (Wong, 2013). Cellular proliferation is stopped since there is some DNA lost at the end of chromosome making telomeres to be shorter. This shortening of the telomere triggers the cellular senescence (Rockstein, 2012).
Additionally, the inflammation hypothesis of aging supports the other theories on reasons for aging. This hypothesis is based on the non-physiological and physiological stressors and, therefore, it has grown to be the cornerstone of all those mechanisms concerning the aging process; It hypotheses the ability of an individual to handle stress (Wong, 2013). The period of unsuccessful aging is usually high in the aging population and less in the younger generation. There is a close relationship between this hypothesis with that of oxidative damage since inflammation implicates both oxygen reactive and nitrogen reactive species (Light, 2012). The uncontrolled and overproduction of the reactive species is the main cause of tissue inflammation.
The immune theory of aging and also called network theory of aging suggest that, aging process is indirectly controlled by molecular defense mechanism and a network of cellular. The major components of the networks are DNA repair enzymes, heat shock production, and antioxidant systems (Siemens, 2014). All these mechanisms work together in a bid to limit or stop the negative effects of biological, physical, and chemical stressors. Differences in the lifespan are experienced since the efficiency of the network differs from one person to the other (Wong, 2013). According to this theory, immune system serves as the most powerful and the best mechanism that can face stressors.
According to me, aging is a normal process that faces everybody and, therefore, old people should not be treated or viewed as unique people in the society especially when it comes to health care (Dossey et al., 2012). In many cases, I have witnessed nurses who have negative attitudes and beliefs towards the aging population. From my own understanding of aging, the genes found at the end of the chromosome in our bodies helps in stabilizing the telomeres and when our bodies are not having them, the chromosomes would break into small parts and stick to one another becoming unstable (Light, 2012). This would eventually make cells die and that’s why older people are associated with many dead cells.
Whether we like or not everybody must get old hence the society must learn to embrace the culture of taking care of the old. The persons responsible for taking care of the elderly should be supported by the government agencies as well as healthcare organizations since they require both health care and financial support to deal with chronic illnesses menace (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2013).
Holistic nursing care has been applied in the aging process. Traditionally, the work of the nurses in taking of the elderly is to help them in the prevention of diseases and advising them on how to change some habits that are unhealthy. Holistic nursing aims at taking care of the healing process of the whole person and not just the physical body since no one is immune to illness (American Holistic Nurses Association, 2013). Nurses dealing with elderly persons having chronic diseases, ought to take care the whole person and not just seeing them as patients and giving a diagnosis. This makes sure that the mind, body and soul of the elderly person are also taken care of (Dossey et al., 2012). At times, nurses go to an extent of assisting the elderly emotionally and spiritually as well as taking into the consideration the cultural differences. Nurses are taught to be holistic nurses to be in a position to treat every patient individually.
Figure 1: showing the components of holistic care
Holistic nursing facilitates health promotion by the nurses amongst the elderly. Health promotion emphasizes the importance of community based practice and community participation in the promotion of health (Lunney, 2013). To do this, nurses have been able to adopt an individualistic approach as well as behavioral changing perspective. This has been witnessed by the change in the nursing education from being concentrated on disease treatment to one that promotes health (Dossey et al., 2012). Prevention is better than cure and there to fight chronic diseases amongst the elderly, preventive measures must be advocated.
Holistic nursing would also involve nurses working beyond the hospital and start taking care of the needs of the elderly at the home settings. There are a lot aging people who cannot move out their beds at home. Hospitals are also filled with patients and nurses are understaffed (Lunney, 2013). This has therefore pushed the nurses from not just working in acute hospital settings but at home settings as well. Holistic nursing employs the aspects of medical homes, nurse managed clinics, Accountable care organizations, and continuum of care to help in treatment of chronic diseases facing the elderly.
Application of these aspects in integrative nursing helps in ensuring the aging population receives quality care and safety (Dossey et al., 2012). These aspects also ensure that, the cost of care delivery has been lowered so that every elderly person can receive treatment regardless of their background hence eliminating health disparities. Consequently these initiatives besides reducing the death rate of the elderly, they help in health promotion initiatives.
Integrative nursing provides assisted living to the elderly people. There are those old people who do not want to live in their own homes and also in nursing homes (Dossey et al., 2012). Assisted livings nurses come in and help the elderly in provision of physical fitness and mental abilities that can reduce infections, mistreatment by the public and trauma. This system also helps in ensuring that the elderly are accepted and respected in the community.
Another important aspect about holistic nursing and aging population is polypharmacy. This condition mostly affects the elderly as a result of taking many several medications at the same time due to chronic diseases (Lunney, 2013). This is a common problem amongst the elderly since they like taking ‘Over the Counter’ medicines that reduce pain without realizing that their bodies react differently than younger people. Holistic nurses have a unique opportunity to help them to identify the right medicines and this helps in risk reduction.
It is important to note that holistic nursing care has positive incomes to both the elderly and nurses. Many aging people have complained that they feel useless in the society since they don’t have any positive contribution to the society (Dossey et al., 2012). Some of them are even left in the bed for the whole maybe because their care givers are busy at workplace. This makes them feel that the society does not take them seriously. Holistic nursing therefore strives to eliminate these mistreatments and perceptions existing in the society towards the elderly. One of the ways that holistic nursing can bring positive outcomes to the elderly is by educating them about self-management (Lunney, 2013). The aging population is faced with a lot of problems such as stress and diseases. They may not be accompanied by the guardians all the time and therefore holistic nurses can train them on how to take care of themselves and how to deal with stress through physical exercise and recreation activities such as knitting. Keep them busy helps in eliminating depression and loneliness.
Consequently holistic nursing improves the quality of life for the aging population. This age group is associated with deterioration of physical health and several chronic diseases (Lunney, 2013). Most of experience fatigue, weight loss, withdrawal, lack of sleep, and lack of appetite resulting to chronic diseases. Holistic nurses advise them on the best diet to be taking, how to take walk around the home compound on regular basis, eating schedules, and new recreational skills and hobbies that can make them busy. These efforts by nurses reduce preferences by chronic diseases hence improved quality of life.
Additionally, the cost of taking care for the aging persons would also be reduced significantly. Chronic diseases that face the elderly are costly to the government and to their families (Attard et al., 2014). Integrative nursing ensure that these chronic diseases are reduced and this is also very big relief to their caretakers financially.
There are a lot of stereotypes existing in the society about the elderly people. There are some people who cannot help an elderly person for fear coming close to them (Lunney, 2013). The society also disregards them since they are less productive economically. Holistic nursing helps in educating and creating awareness to their caregivers on how appreciate and respect the elderly. This move has a positive outcome of increasing their lives on earth since would feel happy when respected and appreciated in the society.
Last but not the least; holistic nursing promotes good relationship between nurses, elderly and their guardians (Lunney, 2013). This relationship is very important in delivery of quality care to the elderly. It will even motivate the elderly to speak out their problems so that they would be assisted.
Conclusively, aging process happens to everybody and it occurs throughout the lifespan of an individual. During this process, people undergo physical changes such as their hairs becoming thin and gray, skins becoming less elastic and sagging, and their mobility is limited. Most of the elderly persons have at least one chronic disease such as diabetes and kidney failure. This concept of aging is important to the nursing profession since it is vital for nurses to have skills and techniques of taking care of the elderly. Holistic nursing care is critical as it trains nurses to see patients as the whole person and not just giving a diagnosis of the disease. Holistic nursing compels the nurses to be on the forefront in advocating the wellbeing of the elderly persons. Aspects such as medical homes, Accountable care organization, continuum of care and nurse managed health clinics have assisted in promoting health care of the elderly. Holistic nursing has positive outcomes to the elderly since it improves their quality of live, reduces cost associated with treatment, train them self-management skill, and eliminate stereotypes existing in the society regarding the elderly.
Reference
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