The Three Core Values of Aging: Dignity, Kindness, and Security

In the last two centuries, life expectancy has doubled from around forty years to over eighty years in Canada and I personally believe that this is one of humanity’s most incredible feats. However; this improved longevity also presents us with one of our greatest challenges. These additional years can be a blessing or a burden, depending on what you value. My personal philosophy on aging is that getting older is just an extension of a person’s life, instead of being a detriment, it should enrich it with wisdom and experience. The first video we watched in class on aging entitled “The Voices of Healthy Aging” (2015) highlighted nine “young at heart” seniors talking sincerely about aging. This video caught my attention because it challenged my own preconceived notions on the elderly, as I had assumed that the elderly were frail and senile. The video made me realize what my own approach and values to getting older were. As I age, people’s perceptions of me will also change. The older I get, the more I will have to deal with how society treats the elderly. My personal philosophy on aging has a direct impact on my nursing practice because what I value influences not only my attitude and behaviour, but also the quality and level of care that I provide. This is why my philosophy on aging regards nursing practice from the perspective of an empathetic understanding of cultural, social and economic values. Nursing practice requires that nurses explore their own values so they can be better placed to respect the values of the communities that they serve. This is why the three values that are core to my philosophy on aging are maintaining a sense of dignity, treating others and yourself with kindness, and being and feeling safe and secure. In order to age well, and be a better nurse, I believe that these core values need to be honoured.

Dignity

As I age, I would hope that I age with dignity, because I believe that if you don’t have your dignity, you don’t have anything at all. If you look at this through a biopsychosocial lens, we know that aging has emerged as a crucial factor in the physical, mental and social well-being of individuals. (Jacobson, 2007). The dignity in elderly patients is said to be at risk, and the literature shows that older people can be treated unacceptably and insensitively by healthcare staff (Jacobson, 2007). An example of this is when the staff do not preserve their patient’s dignity while performing their duties. This can be done by changing your patient’s clothes with the all of the curtains open. This not only undermines the patient’s dignity, but negative interactions like this can be detrimental to the patient’s health, the lack of regard for patients' privacy may become a larger issue, and the general insensitivity to the needs and desires of an older population can disempower them. The video made me realize that dignity should be protected and enhanced at all costs and this should be an important concern in my nursing practice. The current state of geriatric care provides an obvious reason for giving greater emphasis to dignity, which will clearly serve to promote the elderly patient’s level of care.

Kindness

I believe that as you age, caring and kindness need to be valued. This is important to me because I believe in understanding, tolerance and appreciation. I want to be treated with kindness, compassion, and empathy every single day- not just when I am young and able bodied. As I age it becomes even more important because of psychological and physical changes that occur. Coping with change is difficult, no matter how old you are, but aging comes with its own challenges- the end of your career, declining health, and loss of loved ones. This relates to my approach to nursing because being sensitive, kind and caring can guide me in my interactions with the elderly patients (Ward-Griffin and McKeever, 2000). I should not get frustrated or become unkind or impatient. The video in class mentioned that the goal is to “want people to die young as late in life as possible” and this made me realize that in order to provide exceptional care to those who are not able to care for themselves, my patients should be able to find joy and meaning in their lives and my kindness may help them to do that. In order to improve the quality of care, the focus should be on making sure that patients feel like they are being well taken care of and safe.

Security

Security is the third value in my philosophy of aging. This value is important for me in relation to my own aging, because I realize that society treats the elderly much differently than they treat the youth, agism is a concern, and many charlatans take advantage of the elderly. They are often neglected and/or abused. This is a huge problem and why I put security and safety as one of my values. The video made me realize that though they felt young at heart, the elderly population is vulnerable. Improving healthcare knowledge and talking to the families of the patients can help with their safety. It’s important to be vigilant and always ask about abuse in private with the patient. This relates to the nursing profession because our patients should always be safe, but also feel safe. I must work to guarantee a patient’s safety - physically, emotionally, socially. The video has also taught me to treat each elderly person individually, identify their needs and respond to those needs separately without generalization. (Lagacé et al., 2012). This will also be an effective way of ensuring that the treatment and care I give during practice is not insensitive or in any way encroaching on the values that I myself value in my own aging- dignity, caring and security.

The future aging population will have different needs, so the future nurses in the field of geriatric care will have to advance their knowledge and skills to match those needs. Formal nursing education programs (like a masters) can help to prepare nurses leadership roles. This is great news for elderly patients, who are much less likely to slip through the cracks in the system, and as a bonus, it’s also good news for nurses, as they can now advance professionally while still doing what they love. I might consider enrolling in some such program because it will prepare me to take on more responsibility within my profession. As more medical care moves into patients' homes, nurses of the future might also find themselves as the primary provider of direct patient support and a central contact point for coordination of care. Many studies attribute safe, high quality patient care to effective teamwork. Not surprisingly, this means that greater coordination among the healthcare team members must be involved in treating and caring for older adults. I believe that complex role of coordination will fall to nurses in the future, because they can bridge the gap between diagnosis, treatment and care. At the end of the day, my personal philosophy on aging and protecting the three values of dignity, caring and security in the elderly will improve their quality of living, help to meet their physical, social and emotional needs now and well into the future.