The Medical Care of the Elderly from the Care Provider's Point of View

Lilia Rosenfeld

doi:10.31648/hip.2636

Published: 2018-12-211

No. 24 (2018)

The Medical Care of the Elderly from the Care Provider's Point of View

Lilia Rosenfeld

Humanities and Natural Sciences

Section: articles

https://doi.org/10.31648/hip.2636

Abstract

The aging of the population presents modern Western society with a variety of different challenges, especially in the areas of health and medicine. On the one hand, there is the demand of the elderly patients to receive medical treatments that are supposed to improve or preserve the existing quality of life and to prevent the extension of a life without quality, with suffering and pain. On the other hand, aging is accompanied by the appearance and exacerbation of chronic illnesses, reduces the treatment benefits of medical activities and increases the risks of irreversible physical dependence. Furthermore, the lack of consensus among the physicians regarding the willingness of treatment and the proper timing of the treatment of the elderly – pose questions about the quality of the treatment for the elderly. Thus, in the opinion of different care-providers and in comparison to other age groups in modern Western society, the elderly do not enjoy the treatment advantages of medical activities proven in the treatment of other age groups in society.

Keywords:

medical care for healthy elderly, hospitalizations in old age, chronic illnesses in old age, coping with aging, caregiver's attitudes to care of elderly

Download files

pdf

Citation rules

Rosenfeld, L. (2018). The Medical Care of the Elderly from the Care Provider’s Point of View. Humanities and Natural Sciences, (24), 435–453. https://doi.org/10.31648/hip.2636

Cited by / Share

Licence

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

References

Dousdampanis P., Trigka K., Fourtounas C. (2012), Diagnosis and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease in the Elderly: a Field of Ongoing Debate, "Aging and Disease" 3(5): 360-370.

Gerlich M.G., Klindtworth K., Oster P., Pfisterer M., Hager K., Schneider N. (2012), "Who is Going to Explain it to Me so that I Understand?" Healthcare Need and Experiences of Older Patients with Advanced Heart Failure, "European Journal of Aging" 9: 297-303.

Goldberg L.S. & Altman K.W. (2014), The Role of Gastrostomy Tube Placement in Advanced Dementia with Dysphagia: a Critical Review, "Clinical Interventions in Aging" 9: 1733-1739.

Germain M.J. (2015), Should Dialysis be Offered to All Elderly Patients?, "Blood Purification" 39: 55-57.

Mendiratta P., Tilford J., Prodhan P., Curseen K., Azhar G., Wei J. (2012), Trends in Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Placement in the Elderly From 1993 to 2003, "American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias" 27(8): 609-613.

Mercante O., Gagliardi C., Spazzafumo L., Gaspari A., David S., Cingolani D., Castellani C., D'Augello L., Baldoni R., Silvaroli, R. (2014), Loss of Autonomy of Hospitalized Elderly Patients: Does Hospitalization Increase Disability?, "European Journal of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine" 50: 703-708.

Napier D., Ancarno C., Butler B., Calabrese J., Chater A., Chatterjee H., Guesnet F., Horne R., Jacyna S., Jadhav S., Macdonald A., Neuendorf U., Parkhurst A., Reynolds R., Scambler G., Shamdasani S., Smith S. Z., Stougaard-Nielsen J., Thomson L., Tyler N., Volkmann A.M., Walker T., Watson J., Williams A.C., Willott C., Wilson J., Woolf K. (2014), Culture and Health, "The Lancet Commissions" 384: 1607-1639.

Nicolas L.H. (2014), Advance Directives and Nursing Home Stays Associated with Less Aggressive End-of-life Care for Severe Dementia Patients, "National Institutes of Health" 33(4): 667-674.

Pejner M. N., Ziegert K., Kihlgren A. (2012), Trying to Cope with Everyday Life - Emotional Support in Municipal Elderly Care Setting, "International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being": 1-7.

Scala R. (2016), Challenges on Non-invasive Ventilation to Treat Acute Respiratory Failure in the Elderly, "BioMedCentral Pulmonary Medicine" 16: 1-10.

Schroder S.L., Fink A., Schumann N., Moor I., Plehn A. (2015), How Socioeconomic Inequalities Impact Pathways of Care for Coronary Artery Disease Among Elderly Patients: Study Protocol for a Qualitative Longitudinal Study, "BMJ Open" 15: 1-7.

Smebye K., Kirkevold M., Engedal K. (2016), Ethical Dilemmas Concerning Autonomy When Persons with Dementia Wish to Live at Home: a Qualitative, Hermeneutic Study, "BMC Health Services Research" 16(21): 1-12.

Soreide K., Desserud K. (2015), Emergency Surgery in the Elderly: the Balance between Function, Frailty and Futility, "Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine" 23(10): 1-7.

Thorsteinsdottir B., Swetz K., Albright R. (2015), The Ethics of Chronic Dialysis for the Older Patient: Time to Reevaluate the Norms, "Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology" 10: 2094-2099.

van der Dam S., Abma T., Kardol M., Widdershoven G. (2012), "Here's My Dilemma". Moral Case Deliberation as a Platform for Discussing Everyday Ethics in Elderly Care, "Health Care Analysis: HCA: Journal of Health Philosophy and Policy" 20: 250-267.

Wandrowski J., Schuster T., Wolfgang S., Steger F. (2012), Medical Ethical Knowledge and Moral Attitudes Among Physicians in Bavaria, "Medicine" 109(8): 141-147.

White S. (2014), Ethical and Legal Aspects of Anesthesia for the Elderly. "Anaesthesia" 69(1): 43-45.

Ying I., Levitt Z., Jassal S. (2014), Should an Elderly Patient with Stage V CKD and Dementia be Started on Dialysis?, "The American Society of Nephrology" 9: 971-977. Google Scholar