Extra credit
11 /11 / 2015
Ageism Among Nursing Students
According to the US Census Bureau News (2015) there are 44.7 million of older people in U.S, which represent 14.1 percent of the total population who has aged 65 and older in 2013. Gradually as the population ages, the need of healthcare professional increases considerably because changes that occur with normal aging make people more likely to develop certain disorders. Corzort Rachel (2008), who is an assistant clinical professor at the Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory in North Carolina, reports that the major consumers of healthcare are the older adult population (p.21). The reality is that the population is aging rapidly and need professional’s trained nurses in gerontology …show more content…
However, Nancy Schroeder (2015), who is assistant Professor of Nursing, Ohio Northern University, informs that nursing students have an extensive negative attitude toward the care of older adult, which lower the percentage of nursing students who consider a career in geriatric nursing (p.1). Due to the problem of ageism, nursing student hold a negative attitudes and stereotypes regarding older adults, these negative attitude would likely deter new nurse to have a great interest in the care of this population, meet their expectations and deliver excellent care. Schroeder (2015) also point out that nursing students have a total lack of interest in geriatric care specialization (p.1). Nursing students may undervalue the older adult and show a unwillingness to specialize in gerontology concepts that are gradually important as this population continues to grow and impact health care systems. These ageist views of the older adult population among nursing students remain a dominant issue in today's American society. In order to solve this problem it is important to reconsider the nursing school curriculum to increase emphasis on gerontology education courses, then incorporate time for students to reflect on their personal views of aging, …show more content…
According to Dave Bernard (2012) “the society devalues old age in many ways, and this is particularly true in the United States, where individualism, self-reliance, and independence are highly valued. Almost every stereotype we associate with being elderly is something negative, from being crotchety and unwilling to change to being forgetful”(p.1). In other words the older adults are negative portrayed by the society itself. These negatives attitudes toward older adults can lead to ageism. Ann Holroyd, Sherry Dahlke, Cindy Fehr, Piera Jung, Andrea Hunter (2009) report that ageism is a well-known fact in Western society, it refers to a stereotypes or beliefs toward older adults, which are not essentially based on sure evidence (p.374). In fact, ageism is the discrimination against persons of certain age. It is the tendency to regard older adults as incapacitated, unworthy of attention, or inappropriate for employment. Corzort (2008) reports that ageism can result in the attitude that older people are economic burdens on society because the author continuous to say that this population is considered unproductive, sickly, depressing and cognitive impairment is normative (p.22). The view of the society includes healthcare professionals specifically nursing students. Unfortunately, this negative vision of older adult among nursing students create a bad attitude toward this population in the way that as