GERIATRIC NURSING

According to WHO,"nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care dispensed to people of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or not, and in all circumstances. Includes health promotion, disease prevention and HIV care for sick, disabled and terminally ill people".

It is important to know the difference between geriatrics and gerontology.


Geriatrics: "The science that studies the aging process in general as well as biological changes, psychological and social changes that occur in old age."

Gerontology: "The branch of medicine that studies the acute and chronic diseases in older patients in its clinical, therapeutic, preventive and social".

Gerontological Nursing is a specialty that encompasses the assessment of the needs of the elderly, planning and management of care to meet their needs as well as the evaluation of the effectiveness of such care in achieving and maintaining a level wellness consistent with the constraints imposed by the aging process.

For some time, there has been an increase in life expectancy due to the reduction of mortality and birth rates.

All this leads to increased social problems, economic and health.

If this continues, the results could prove to be the following:

• Not all older people have the same degree of health, can be classified into:

	Healthy older person	Sick older person	Frail elderly	Geriatric patient
Concept	Advanced age and absence of disease.	Healthy elderly with an acute illness.	Old age and with several underlying conditions that are compensated. It is independent but has a high risk of being dependent.	Elderly with chronic diseases who become dependent. They often have mental and social problems.
Instrumental activities of daily living.	All independent	All independent	Dependent to some	Dependent to some
Basic activities of daily living.	All independent	All independent	All independent	Dependent to some
Illness behavior.	Low tendency to dependence	Low tendency to dependence	High tendency to dependence	Tendency to increased dependence
Probability of geriatric syndromes.	Low	Low	High	Very high

Bibliography:

1. Robles Raya MJ, Miralles Basseda R, Llorach Gaspar I, Cervera Alemany AM. Definición y objetivos de la especialidad de Geriatría. Tipología de anciano y población diana. En: Tratado de geriatría para residentes. Madrid: Sociedad Española de Geriatría y Gerontología (SEGG); p.21-32.http://www.imsersomayores.csic.es/documentos/documentos/segg-tratado-01.pdf

2. Organización mundial de la salud: Temas de salud: El envejecimiento:http://www.who.int 

3. Cortés Rubio JA, Méndez-Bonito gonzález E, Koutsourais Movilla R, Utrilla Moro J, Macias Rodríguez J, Casado Aguado MA, Rozas Barrera Z. ¿Cuál es la prevalencia de ancianos de alto riesgo en atención primaria?. Aten Primaria. 1996; vol.18 núm 6: 18:327-31. Disponible: http://www.elsevier.es/es/revistas/atencion-primaria-27/cual-es-prevalencia-ancianos-alto-riesgo-atencion-14365-originales-breves-1996

4. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health: Pubmed: Factors associated with functional status in a population aged ≥75 years without total dependence: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22342046