For this assignment, I interviewed a female Adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner (AGPCNP) who works in a Long-term care (LTC) facility. The AGPCNP supervises and provides care and treatment to older adults recovering from an illness or injury in the long-term care facility. Besides, the AGPCNP has a role in improving the quality of life and promoting the wellbeing of older adults through education, research, and application of interdisciplinary knowledge of the aging process and aging population. The service provider has been an AGPCNP for seven years and has worked in the facility for three years. She has a Master’s degree in Nursing with an Adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner specialization. Before becoming an AGPCNP, she worked as a registered nurse for eight years. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the interview with the AGPCNP and reflect on how the interview has expanded my understanding of service providers.
The AGPCNP’s primary role is to assess, diagnose, and plan for the health needs of older adults in the LTC facility. She is an autonomous NP with independent practice and thus is involved in obtaining patients’ medical histories, performing physical examinations, ordering screening tests, interpreting diagnostic tests, and administering age-appropriate pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. Furthermore, the AGPCNP mentioned that she addresses the cultural, psychological, and social aspects of aging alongside treating and preventing illnesses and injuries in older adults. This comprehensive approach to health enables the AGPCNP to deliver a care plan that the patient will understand and that family members and caregivers can support. She states that she assesses older adults to identify the physical, social, economic, psychological, and spiritual factors that may influence the health of patients and educates the patients on how to improve health outcomes. Moreover, the AGPCNP is tasked with managing transitions of patients between care settings, providing patient and caregiver education during transition, and evaluating caregiver competence.
The AGNP’s job and the LTC facility she works in significantly impact the health and wellbeing of aging adults. The facility provides a wide range of services to assist older adults over prolonged periods to compensate for loss of function caused by chronic illnesses, injury, or physical or mental disability. The care provided to older adults in the facility varies based on a patient’s needs and includes hands-on, direct care and general supervisory assistance. The facility supports older adults in two aspects: activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). ADLs include eating, bathing, dressing, getting in and out of bed or a chair, and using the toilet. IADLs include additional tasks needed to maintain a patient’s independence, like managing medications. The organization is under community-based care.
Social, political, and economic factors impact the day-to-day running of the long-term care facility. Social factors include the social isolation of older adults by their families, which leads to increased levels of depression and anxiety. Besides, older adults fear being dependent due to the social stigma associated with being fully dependent on others for ADLs. This makes them reluctant to accept help from another person to carry out ADLs or make decisions about finances and health care. Political factors relate to policymakers having a role in determining which type of care is most suitable for whom. Existing policies influence service delivery and financing in long-term care facilities, and policymakers affect the organization’s scope, mix, quality, and financing of services. Economic factors that impact service delivery at the LTC facility include financial retrenchment and budgetary pressures. The costs of LTC include direct costs of care as well as costs such as resource utilization and family burden. However, policies are primarily concerned with reimbursement costs but fail to consider the other costs, which are equally important.
The AGPCNP mentioned that almost all patients present with at least two comorbidities. Consequently, the organization has adopted an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach to help meet all the patients’ needs. According to the AGPCNP, the facility employs a patient-centered, multidisciplinary approach, whereby goals are set for and with the patient and often involves the family. This is followed by assigning duties to the different disciplines needed to support the patient’s goal. An interdisciplinary and interpersonal approach goes hand-in-hand, and the ho
Struggling with online classes or exams? Get expert help to ace your coursework, assignments, and tests stress-free!