If you haven’t figured it out by now, a career as a healthcare professional working with older adults is quite possibly a guarantee of job security. According to Maryville University, the population people in the U.S. age sixty-five or older is expected to double by the year 2032. Yes, you read that correctly. And no, this isn’t just some exaggeration made for the sake of driving home a point in an attention-grabbing sort of way. Rather, it’s simple arithmetic.
Considering the fact that there are over 192,000 nurse practitioners practicing in the United States, as well as the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a 34 percent growth for the occupation from 2012-2022, it’s safe to say that Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioners (AGPCNPs), in particular, are positioned to play a major role in shaping the future of healthcare.
For example, many people utilize doc-in-the-box-style clinics such as those located inside Rite Aid or Walgreen’s. The reasons of this are plentiful, but they include less-than-comprehensive insurance plans, drop-in visits for unexpected medical needs, and the cost-effectiveness of going to see a nurse practitioner—as opposed to a general practice doctor.
While 19% of Nurse Practitioners focus on adult care, only 3% of NPs focus on gerontology. Considering that the U.S. population age 65 or older is expected to double, reaching 72 million over the next 25 years, a career in healthcare administration, physical therapy, or rehabilitation makes a lot of sense.
Moreover, it’s not necessary to become a nurse practitioner, per se; there are many support roles and managerial positions that are well-suited to working with an older adult population, including Healthcare Administrator, Data Analyst, Healthcare Informatics Specialist, and Medical Records Specialist.
Older Adults & Mental Health
The difficulty with treating mental health effectively is partially tied to the stigma associated with mental disorders among older generations. According to Today’s Geriatric Medicine, “Clinicians should be mindful of the fact that the symptoms of depression may be more difficult to detect in the elderly population due to a variety of factors.Older adults can be reluctant to seek professional help for emotional problems, partly because of the perceived stigma of psychiatric illness among the elderly.”
Therefore, it’s crucial that healthcare professionals help implement some of the technological breakthroughs currently ‘shaking up’ the industry: information sharing, self-management, point-of-care (POC) technology, and pharma-free care are all key components in the move toward more patient-centered, personalized care—especially for older adults.
Take the problem of mental illness: patients reluctant to take prescribed medications for anxiety or depression, for example, need access to high-quality information such as that found on Medical News Today’s Knowledge Center, which hosts a number of articles about topics related to mental health, cancer, and other health conditions.
For example, this article on the top ten leading causes of death in the United States lists accidents or unintentional injuries as the fourth-leading cause of death, with suicide being the tenth most common cause of death. There’s reason to believe, however, that many of those ‘accidental’ deaths weren’t accidents at all, since Today’s Geriatric Medicine cites ‘passive suicide’ as one of the most common methods of suicide among older individuals:
While younger individuals may tend to use more aggressive methods such as poisoning, self-inflicted gun shots, and hanging, older patients actually choose forms of suicide that are equally deadly but less visible. These include malnutrition (refusing to eat), dehydration (refusal of fluids), medication avoidance (refusing to take maintenance drugs), and refusing to accept care in emergent situations.
The bright spot in all this, however, is that self-management and pharma-free care help alleviate some of the roots of the problem, since alternative treatments are often less riddled with problematic side effects that can aggravate patients juggling multiple prescriptions.
When patients have access to their own records and prescription information, they are better able to make informed decisions about their own care—which allows them to feel more in control of the situation, as opposed to feeling kept in the dark.
Whether you’re considering a career as a nurse practitioner with a focus in gerontology or you have a family member looking for more information about their individual healthcare choices, it’s important to be aware of the multiple factors and new technology practices influencing the healthcare industry.
These new practices should be celebrated: not only do they provide numerous employment opportunities over the next few years, but they also improve the accuracy and efficiency of healthcare for aging adults, nationwide.