Unit 2

Question 1

What are 5 barrier to wellness promotion in the older adult?

Answer 1

1. Older adults may be pessimistic about their ability to improve their health and functioning.
2. Survival needs and a multitude of health problems may take precedence over the ‘luxury’ of being able to focus on wellness and quality of life.
3. Health care environments focus more on treating disease than on preventing illness and addressing whole-person needs.
4. Often symptoms are mistakenly attributed to aging rather than identified and addressed as reversible and treatable contributing factors.
5. Health care providers may not believe that older adults are capable of learning and implementing health-promoting behaviours that are inherent in wellness-oriented care.

Question 2

What is high level wellness?

Answer 2

Defined by Halbert L. Dunn as an “integrated method of functioning that is oriented toward maximizing each person’s potential, while maintaining a continuum of balance and purposeful direction within the person’s environment.

Question 3

What are nursing actions which promote wellness for older adults?

Answer 3

• Addressing the body-mind-spirit interrelatedness of each older adult.
• Identifying and challenging ageist attitudes, especially those that interfere with optimal health care.
• Assessing each older adult from a whole-person perspective.
• Incorporating wellness nursing diagnoses as a routine part of care.
• Planning for wellness outcomes, which are directed toward improved health, functioning and quality of life.
• Using nursing interventions to address conditions that interfere with optimal functioning.
• Recognizing each older adult’s potential for improved health and functioning as well as psychological and spiritual growth.
• Teaching about self-care behaviours to improve health and functioning.
• Promoting wellness for caregivers and other people who provide care for older adults.

Question 4

What is subjective age?

Answer 4

a person’s perception of their age. The age that they “feel”)

Question 5

What us perceived age?

Answer 5

how old other people estimate someone is

Question 6

What is chronological age??

Answer 6

length of time that has passed since birth

Question 7

What is functional age?

Answer 7

physiologic health, psychological well-being, socioeconomic factors and the ability to function and participate in desirable activities)
Functional Age is the age that is most important to health care providers working with older adults.

Question 8

What is ageism?

Answer 8

the prejudices and stereotypes that are applied to older people sheerly on the basis of their age, like sexism and racism, is a way of pigeonholing people and not allowing them to be individuals with unique ways of living their lives.

Question 9

What are the 4 serious negative consequences of ageism?

Answer 9

1. In medical care: older people often receive less aggressive treatment for common ailments, which are dismissed as a natural part of aging.
2. In the workplace: older job applicants are rated less positively than younger ones, even when they are similarly qualified and despite considerable research showing that job performance does not decrease in older adults.
3. In nursing homes and home settings: elder abuse and neglect is underreported.
4. In media: older adults are underrepresented and stereotyped.

Question 10

What is functional consequences theory?

Answer 10

Differs from Functional Assessment as it distinguishes between age-related changes that increase vulnerability and risk factors; focuses on functional consequences that can be addressed through nursing intervention; focuses on assessing conditions that affect functioning; and leads to wellness outcomes such as improved functioning and quality of life.

Question 11

What are functional consequences?

Answer 11

the observable effects of actions, risk factors, and age-related changed that influence the quality of life or day-to-day activities of older adults. Risk factors can emerge from the environment or physiologic and psychological influences.

Question 12

What are negative functional consequences?

Answer 12

interfere with a person’s level of function or quality of life or increase a person’s dependency. They typically occur because of age-related changes and risk factors. They may also be caused by interventions (i.e.: constipation resulting from an analgesic).

Question 13

What are positive functional consequences?

Answer 13

facilitate the highest level of performance and the least amount of dependency. They can result from automatic actions or purposeful interventions. Older adults can facilitate them by compensating for age-related changes (i.e.: increasing the amount of light used to read). Positive functional consequences may result from age-related changes as well. (i.e.: a woman may positively correlate postmenopausal inability to get pregnant with and increase satisfaction with sexual relationships).

Question 14

What is healthy aging?

Answer 14

No illness and preserved functioning in ADLs

Question 15

What is active aging?

Answer 15

High physical and cognitive functioning and positive affect and control

Question 16

What is productive aging?

Answer 16

Social participation and engagment

Question 17

What is successful aging?

Answer 17

the full concept of aging well

Question 18

What are the 5 sociocultural theories on aging?

Answer 18

these theories help nurses view older adults in relation to society and environments. They encourage nurses to consider not only the cultural needs of individual older adults, but also the role of culture in shaping societal attitudes about aging. In addition, these theories emphasize the importance of assessing both environmental and psychological factors that influence the functioning of an older adult. Disengagement theory, activity theory, subculture theory, age stratification theory, person environment Fit theory

Question 19

What is disengagement theory?

Answer 19

Society and older adults engage in a mutually beneficial process of reciprocal withdrawal to maintain social equilibium

Question 20

What is activity theory?

Answer 20

Oder adults remain socially and psychologically fit it they remain actively engaged in life

Question 21

What is subculture theory?

Answer 21

old people, as a group, have their own norms, expectations, beliefs, and habits; therefore, they have their own subculture. Older people are less well integrated into the larger society and interact more among themselves, compared with people from other age groups.

Question 22

What is age stratification theory?

Answer 22

addresses the interdependencies between age as an element of the social structure and the aging of people and cohorts as a social process.

Question 23

What is person-environment fit theory?

Answer 23

considers the interrelationships between personal competence and the environment. For each person’s level of competence, there is a level of environmental demands. “The more impaired the person, the greater impact of the environment.”

Question 24

What are the 5 psychological theories on aging?

Answer 24

Human needs theory, life-course theory and personality development theory, selection, optimization, and compensation, socioeconomic sensitivity theory, gerotranscendence

Question 25

What is Human Needs theory?

Answer 25

Used to address the concepts of motivation and human needs. Based off Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physiological needs, safety and security needs, love and belongingness, self-esteem and self-actualization (lowest to highest). One cannot move to the higher level without meeting the needs of the lower levels.

Question 26

What is Life-course and personality development theory?

Answer 26

: people are more generally extroverted at a young age and develop into introversion as they age. Describes the task of old age as balancing the search for integrity and wholeness with a sense of despair.

Question 27

What is selection, optimization and personality development theory?

Answer 27

according to this theory, older adults select certain goals and tasks while disengaging from other goals; they optimize necessary resources to achieve these goals; and they compensate by establishing new resources to substitute for lowered or lost abilities and skills.

Question 28

What is socioeconomic selectivity theory?

Answer 28

in contractiction to younger adults, who view time as unconstrained, older adults recognize that their time is limited, so they focus on emotional goals rather than on knowledge-seeking goals.

Question 29

What is Gerotranscendence?

Answer 29

human aging is a process of shifting from a rational and materialistic metaperspective to a more cosmic and transcendent vision. It includes: decreased self-centredness; less concern with body and material things; decreased fear of death; discovery of hidden aspects of self; increased altruism; increased time spent in solitude; urge to abandon roles; and decreased interest in superfluous social interaction.