Geriatric Nursing

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You may also hear this nursing field referred to as “gerontological nursing” depending on regional preferences. Numerous professional organizations for geriatric nursing can be found around the world, offering additional training, certification, and support for people who work in this field. Geriatric nurses can also take advantage of trade journals, research programs, conferences, and other things, which are designed to promote knowledge and cooperation in the field.

Caring for the elderly can be very complex. In addition to providing basic nursing services, a geriatric nurse must also offer emotional support to patients, watching out for their mental health and keeping a close eye out for medical conditions, which can emerge quickly in the elderly. Geriatric nurses must also be able to coordinate with the families of their patients, and sometimes they work side by side with family caregivers, offering training to help them care for their family members while taking care of complex nursing tasks.

Geriatric nursing can occur in a variety of settings. Some nurses work in institutions ...
... such as hospitals, residential care facilities, and retirement communities, with some specializing in unique geriatric nursing needs such as geriatric mental health, or care for people with dementia. Other people in this field prefer to work in home nursing, either as live-in providers or visiting nurses who may be part of a team of caregivers.

Working in this field can sometimes be emotionally stressful. Elderly patients are more likely to die, and elderly people can also be victims of neglect and abuse. Geriatric nurses work very hard to provide respectful, loving care to their patients, but they are part of a larger framework, and they cannot be present all the time to watch out for their patients. Elderly individuals may also struggle with a variety of medical problems and financial issues which can contribute to depression and other mental health problems, creating unique challenges for their caregivers.

The fastest-growing nursing jobs in coming years will require strong critical thinking skills, an ability to work independently and in cooperation with other providers, an understanding of how healthcare systems work, and familiarity with the needs of older adults. And they won’t necessarily be in hospitals.

“There will always be hospital jobs, but I think we should expect to see a lot more jobs in what we call community health,” says Linda Tieman, RN, MN, FACHE, executive director of the Washington Center for Nursing and board president of the Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers.

Despite a slow period, due mostly to a sluggish economy, RN employment is expected to grow by 22% from 2008 to 2018, “much faster than the average for all occupations,” according to the 2010-11 edition of Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook. But not all healthcare industries will be hiring nurses at the same rate. Though hospitals employ about 60% of all RNs, that share is expected to drop as healthcare reform; technological innovations and cost-cutting trends provide incentives to take care of more people in the community.

The fastest-growing RN jobs will be in physician offices (48% growth rate), home health (33% growth rate), and nursing care facilities (25% growth rate), according to federal projections. Hospital jobs will continue to increase as nurses get older and start to retire, but at a lower rate (17%) than other healthcare settings.

“While the intensity of nursing care is likely to increase, requiring more nurses per patient, the number of inpatients is not likely to grow by much,” the Labor Department report states, noting that earlier discharges and more outpatient procedures will keep hospital patient populations relatively stable.

Still, some nursing workforce researchers point out that an increasingly large aging population with multiple chronic conditions likely will mean an increase in hospital patients as well as patients in community care.