Living Old In America Essay

Living Old in America

In American today, those over 85 are now the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population. Medical advances allowed the number of Americans to live longer with healthier lives but comorbidities for others. In the past two decades, patients died from viruses, influenza and pneumonia. Today, advancement in healthcare has created a new development. Now that vaccines, procedures and medicine are available for all these diseases that once took the lives of the young and old population, the American people are living longer with a new challenge. Elderly are now living with multi-morbidities and are experiencing debilitating physical decline that often requires an immense amount of care and is more than the American healthcare system projected. The real problem that is at stake is that fewer caregivers are available to provide the care necessary

On one hand there is a ninety-four year old man or woman functioning like a 65 year old (still working and requiring very little assistance). While on the other hand there is a 65-100 year old elderly patient dying a slow death from their multiple morbidities. The story gave an eye opening realism of how the elderly will be mismanaged if healthcare doesn’t start initiating a plan. During the PBS (2006) documentary on Living Old, Dr. Kass states “The bad news is that the price that many people are going to be paying for an extra decade of healthy longevity is up to another decade of anything but healthy longevity. … We 've not yet begun to face up to what this means in human terms”. I feel the obligation to get involved as an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) and help change the outlook of the population that is living older. Within twenty years, one in five Americans will be over 65 and an estimated 90 percent of those Americans will have one or more chronic condition (Wood,