1. Healthy ageing

Question 1

What is ageing?

Answer 1

• Process of growing, Becoming older

- Refers to biological process of growing older in a deleterious sense, what some authors call senescence

Question 2

What influences health in older people?

Answer 2

Individual
- Behaviours, age related changes, genetics, disease

Environmental
- Housing and social facilities

Question 3

Dimensions of age (5)

Answer 3

Chronological
Biological 
Psychological 
Spiritual 
Social/cultural

Question 4

Age related changes and how the body is impacted

Answer 4

Change
•	Cardiac muscles thicken 
•	Arteries stiffen 
•	Lung tissue diminishes 
•	Brain and spinal cord 
•	Degenerate
•	Kidney shrink 
•	Bladder muscles weaken 

Impact
Increased incidence of 
•	Frailty 
•	Falls 
•	Pain 
•	Psychological changes 
•	Chronic illness 
•	Disability and impairment

Question 5

Role of the nurse in fragility

Answer 5

• Identify patient at risk of frailty using a validated tool
• Report at risk cases
• Refer and liaise with multidisciplinary team e.g. physiotherapist
• Communicate with patient and family
• Facilitate follow up in the community if required

Question 6

Pain and nursing management

Answer 6

Careful and frequent examination of all vague complaints of pain is necessary:
• Review of the patients history
• Potential causes of pain
• Assessment of current pain
• Review of all medications
• Beliefs about use of pain medication - addiction myths
• Patients family should be contacted for further information

Question 7

Pain assessment

Answer 7

PQRSTU
• Provoke the pain, what makes the pain worse?
• Quality of the pain, what does the pain feel like in your own words?
• Region or radiation, where is the pain does it radiate
• Severity, using a pain scale have the patient describe the intensity?
• Time, when did it begin, how long has it lasted?
• Understanding, what is the patient’s understanding of the cause of the pain?

Question 8

Difference disease and normal ageing

Answer 8

Normal aspects of aging can appear as manifestations of disease while other changes can mask early signs of illness.

There is a need for:
• An understanding of the aging process
• Assessment skills developed specifically for the older adults
• An understanding of the factors that produce altered presentations of several illnesses