For successful completion of this extra credit assignment, you can receive up to 2% added to your final course grade.
Assignment: Think of an older person you know who is experiencing some of the life events listed below. Choose two life events:
1. Dealing with ageist attitudes (devaluation, negative attitudes, age-determined expectations, stereotypes and myths, degradation);
2. Retirement (loss of income, loss of identity, loss of status/authority, loss of structure/schedule, loss of purpose, loss of peer contacts);
3. Chronic Illness/Functional Impairments;
4. Relocation from own home (loss of space, loss of privacy, change of neighborhoods, moving away from friends);
5. Widowhood (loss of helper/companion, loss of sexual partner, emptiness/loneliness/grief, change in responsibility, dependency on others);
6. Death of friends (loss of companions, threat to own mortality, loss of social activities).
Now, answer the following questions:
Is the adjustment to the life events going well or could it be improved? If it can be improved, how?
As a nurse, how would you assess this person’s adjustment to the life events?
What interventions would you suggest to improve the older person’s adjustment to this life event?
Identify one public or health policy for each life event that supports or hinders this person’s adjustment.
What is your advocacy role as a nurse in changing or improving this policy?
