RNAO article suggests gerontology is the new ‘in’ career for nursing
LTC nurses help dispel pervasive myths to dispel sector in more positive, realistic light
Tuesday November 9, 2010 -- Camille Jensen
An article published by the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) is proposing that long-term care and gerontology could be the next “in” career for nursing.

“Shattered! 10 myths about long-term care nursing” was published in the September/October edition of Registered Nurse Journal, the RNAO’s bimonthly publication.

The article outlines the Top 10 myths held by people who don’t work in long-term care, and speaks with RNs working in the field to dispel myths about the sector.

One major perspective change was voiced by Beryl Cable-Williams, an RN and faculty member at the Trent/Fleming School of Nursing at Peterborough’s Trent University, who says an aging demographic will put pressure on most health-care sectors, making gerontology an important speciality.

While most of her students aspire to work in intensive care and emergency rooms, they often don’t have a vision for the likely age of their patients.

“I think if we did some counting at the ER we would find that many of the people who cross that threshold really are 65 years of age or older,” Cable-Williams tells the Morning Report.

As a nursing instructor, she says most students aspire to the “medical model,” a practice that gains influence through popular TV programs like ER and Grey’s Anatomy. Work will need to be done to help students understand long-term care’s model, which does not fit this vision.

“It’s very much more a social model of care in long-term care and it may not be as easy for our students to come to appreciate that as a legitimate model within a broader health-care philosophy,” says Cable-Williams.

In addition to understanding the prevalence of seniors’ health-care issues, the article posits a number of positive and realistic assumptions a nurse should know about long-term care.

Such things as: long-term care nursing requires superb leadership and outstanding assessment skills because residents’ needs are complex, long-term care offers progressive treatments such as peritoneal dialysis, and long-term care can offer “excellent benefits and wages to its nursing staff.”

Several of the myths dispelled received unanimous agreement from nurses working in long-term care. These included the ability to provide hands-on care for residents and that long-term care nursing is a fulfilling and more intimate kind of nursing.

To read the article in full, click here.

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