Nursing care of older adults

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Topic 1: Healthcare decisions

Aging relatives require a lot of care due to their delicate state such as chronic illnesses. There is the need to make appropriate decisions regarding the best care for an aging relative. A family member can be assisted to make necessary care decisions for an aging relative through various ways. First, it is important to help them find out the type of care the aging relative needs. This can be achieved through establishing the kind of care the relative needs now and if it might change in the future. Assistance is also required to determine whether the relative can be taken care at home with help of a skilled nurse or if they need care in a skilled nursing facility. The family member also requires assistance on issues of costs. It is important to establish the approximate costs that will be required for care of the aging relative. The family member should be advised to choose quality but affordable care. It is important to guide the family member on choice of care that is going to help the aging relative (Silin, & Silin, 2009).

Trips to different care sites can be quite intimidating to both patients and relatives. As caregivers, family members mainly focus on the medical treatment of the family member and so do the staff of the healthcare facility. The handling of transition is critical for the health and well-being of the patient. Proper transition can be achieved through appropriate care coordination. This requires that the medical records of the patients are properly transmitted in the course of transition between different levels. Proper transition can also be achieved through creating follow-up arrangements for the patient incase they are transitioning from a healthcare facility to their homes. This helps in ensuring that the patient recovery process will be followed up and hence their improvement (Ross, 2008).

Topic 2: Economics

Medicare is helpful; in various ways, first anyone above the age of 65 years and an American citizen is eligible to enrolling for Medicare. This means that Medicare program is quite beneficial to all the elderly people in America above the age of 65 years. This is quite helpful because by the time, these people are out of work and hence lack any form of income. Furthermore, they have worked all their life and hence it would only be fair if the government assists them through providing healthcare and social security when they are old (Kronenfeld, 2011).Part A covers inpatient hospital, home health care and skilled facility. This means that the elderly person is eligible to these services at no cost. Once they are enrolled, they receive these benefits automatically and do not have to pay premiums since it has already been paid for through taxes. This is quite beneficial since an elderly person is no longer working and hence has no income that can help to pay for his or her healthcare.

Medicare is also helpful because an individual under Medicare coverage is eligible to social security benefits. This makes an individual able to sustain themselves since they are no longer working and earning an income. What makes Medicare least helpful is that there are some things that it does not cover. For instance, Medicare does not cover custodial care which is required by many elderly people. Most elderly people have chronic illnesses and hence they require a lot of custodial care like bathing, walking or even dressing. Therefore, Medicare ends up not being useful to most elderly people since they require a lot of custodial care. In the Medicare program, there is the Medicare advantage plan which is an annual contract and hence can change the benefits one is entitled to (Miller, 2013). The plans can decide not to renew or negotiate the contracts with an individual. In the Medicare advantage plans, some doctors and hospitals fail to accept the payment terms of the plan and hence leaving an individual without coverage.

References

 Silin, P., & Silin, P. (2009). Nursing homes and assisted living: The family’s guide to making decisions and getting good care (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Kronenfeld, J. (2011). Medicare. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood.

Miller, D. (2013). Medicare. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Ross, D. (2008). Healthcare transitions and the aging population a framework to measure the value of rapid rehabilitation.