Older Adults are the Core Business of Health Care

From Geriatric Nursing Education

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Revision as of 22:47, 20 April 2011

The John A. Hartford Foundation website in the U.S. provides U.S. statistics that support their conclusion that "older adults are the core business of health care".

In Canada:

• Seniors (age 65+) are three times as likely as younger Canadians to be admitted to hospital ^[1]
• Repeat admissions are more common among seniors than younger people^[1]
• Once seniors are in hospital, they typically spend more time there than do younger people^[1]
• Delirium occurs in up to 50% of older persons admitted to hospital, with the highest rates among those having surgery, admitted to the ICU, or with pre-existing dementia^[2]
• Hospitalized patients who are delirious have a worse prognosis^[2]
• Delirium is often not recognized^[2]

Canadian demographics are available from the Statistics Canada website. For example, in 2008, there were 4,563,100 Canadians aged 65 and older. You can search by geographic region for statistics for your area.

Dorothy Pringle's editorial "Scared to need nursing" in the Canadian Journal of Nursing Leadership, Volume 22, Issue 3, is a resource for lobbying colleagues for curricular changes.

Quotes related to aging on the Bandwith online.org website of the John A. Hartford Foundation.