The Gerontological Explosion Essay

A gerontology nurse is a specialist who works together with old people and provides them with care to increase their quality of life during their old age. They help the aged in treating injuries, rehabilitation, routine check-ups and administer medication for the terminally ill elders among other primary duties. They act as assistants to the old people and help them in making their daily life more comfortable. This essay focuses on the reasons for the shortage of gerontologists and means to increase the interest in this area.

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There has been a shortage of gerontology nurses over the years, and there is an expected acute shortage of labor in this specialty in the future (Mentes, Cadogan, Woods, Philips, 2015). This is because there are very few students who are willing to study for this type of nursing due to the following reasons. First, there is reduced exposure in the field since there are very few gerontologists that students look up to. This can be solved by educating students about the advantages of choosing this career choice using examples of previous nurses.

In addition to that, the nature of the job also discourages those who may want to choose it. Most nurses prefer to cater for patients with acute illnesses rather than those with chronic diseases. Gerontologists, however, mostly deal with patients with chronic diseases which pushes away many potential nurses. The financial rewards of the jobs also discourage some nurses. The job does not pay as well as the other sectors of nursing which in turn reduces its marketability as a career choice. Many students will choose a career that is best paying if their qualifications allow it. Being that the job is not as well paying, most students select other courses that they qualify for (Meiboom, Vries, Hertogh, Scheele, 2015). To solve this problem, the government should consider increasing the salaries of nurses.

A profile for older people suggests that due to certain factors such as education levels and healthcare, there is bound to be an increase in the number of old people in the future. The American Nurses Association suggests that plans should be implemented to solve issues such as the shortage of nurses in its policies. This relates to A Profile for Older Americans since it indicates that a proper plan should be implemented to curb the shortage of gerontology nurses.

It is essential to identify and find means to curb with the shortage of gerontologists in the country as a means to ensure that the labor force in the future does not become acute due to lack of training nurses. This is done by encouraging more students to choose this career and motivating the existing gerontologists so that they can act as role models to more students.

References

Mentes, J., Cadogan, M., Woods, L., & Phillips, L. (2015). Evaluation of the Nurses Caring for Older Adults Young Scholars Program. The Gerontologist, 55(Suppl_1), S165-S173.

Meiboom, A., Vries, H., Hertogh, C., & Scheele, F. (2015). PMC US national library of medicine. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC