Over the course of this semester, my ideas toward gerontology had changed greatly. Going into the course I kind of thought that what we had been learning about for the last year and a half already had an emphasis on how to properly take care of the older population. After finishing up this course it showed me that there was much more to it than what I had initially thought. Going forward I will really be able to apply what we have learned about the older population and make sure to give them the best care possible.
One insight from this course that really resonated with me was the idea of taught helplessness. This concept not only applies to caring for an older population in a clinical setting, but it also can apply outside of that. It is important to make sure that the person that you may be caring for still should try to do as much as they can in their care. Doing everything for them like washing or other ADLs the client will soon think that they are uncapable of doing them for themselves. Which in most cases is not the case and they are more than capable of doing so.
A second insight that I will take away from this course is to really do a thorough medication reconciliation. We have spent a lot of time talking about all of the different effects that medications can have on an older adult and the importance of looking to see if all the drugs are really necessary. Doing a good medication reconciliation helps to really take a deep dive into the client’s medications and really look to see if these medications are still actually doing the intended job that they were supposed to do or is there another form of treatment for this issue. the medication reconciliation can also show that there may be an interaction that could be causing a need for another medication, which can lead to other issues for an older client. This can mean that taking away one medication can eliminate the need for other medications, all thanks to simply doing a medication reconciliation.
