Geriatrics Overview Lecture Powerpoint Flashcards
Geriatrics
Branch of medicine focuses on health promotion and prevention and treatment of disease and disability later in life also known as gerontology, gerontologist, or a geriatrician
Geriatric young vs middle vs old old
55-74, 75-84, and 85+
Ageism
Systematic labeling and discrimination against older adults, stereotyping including ageist language such as GOMER (get out of my emergency room)
Myths about aging older adults (4)
- senile
- no interest in sexual relations
- miserable and unhappy
- incontinent
Healthcare workers are significantly more negative toward the ___ than the ___ patient, because…
older, younger
…mental justification of time and money being wasted, feeling of frustration or helplessness to save or cure patient, increased fear about mortality
Universal physiologic changes associated with aging (6)
- decreased night vision
- decreased muscle mass
- loss of hair pigment
- decreased lung vital capacity
- decreased height
- decreased reaction time
Functional reserve theory
Idea that most of body’s organ systems have some degree of redundancy so they can continue to function even if some cells are lost to disease or insult, this diminishes as individuals age so acute insult can have more severe consequences
Common, but not inevitable physiologic changes associated with aging (6)
- hearing loss
- macular degeneration
- hypertension and heart dz
- diabetes
- cancer
- dementia
Erickson’s final task of life
Ego integrity vs despair (sense of whole satisfaction with ones life and healthy viewpoint regarding death) that geriatric patients undergo
Peck’s add on (3)
The idea of ego differentiation vs work role preocupation, body transcendence vs body preoccupation, and ego transcendence vs ego preoccupation as associated tasks of life that geriatric patients undergo
Social problems with aging (4)
- loss of income
- loss of close family
- loss of community/friends
- social isolation
What is a barrier to diagnosis and treatment of visual loss in the elderly? What visual impairments occur with greater frequency as people age (3)
Fear of loss of license
- refractive error (most common)
- cataracts
- macular degeneration (most common cause of blindness in whites)
Cataracts vs glaucoma vs macular degeneration
- Cataracts is the blurring of all vision due to lens opacification, common bilaterally in aging or diabetic, painless slow progressive loss
- glaucoma is loss of peripheral vision either acute (painful, close angle) or chronic (painless, open angle) usually asymptomatic until present with vision loss, laatanoprost is first line treatment (prostaglandin analog) but can also use acetazolamide
- macular degeneration is loss of vision in middle of field either dry (progressive over age with drusen bodies on fundoscopic) or wet (not as common but more aggressive presenting in months with new abnormal vessels appearing on fundoscopic)
Healthcare providers when interacting with hearing loss geriatric patients
-speak slow, loud and clear, face the patient
Signs of hearing loss (4)
- misunderstanding parts of conversation
- turning TV way up
- unable to differentate background noise from talking
- straining to read lips or facial expression
