Older people--Long-term care

Research has shown that generally no more than 20% of populations surveyed have completed Advance Medical Directives and that there is a strong ethnic variation in their choice (i.e. Protestants and Whites were more likely to have an Advance Medical Directive than Jews, Catholics, Hispanics, or Blacks). This thesis developed and tested the hypothesis that the use of Advance Medical Directives by Jews would comparably vary inversely with their degree of social integration as measured by their degree of orthodoxy. Survey results confirmed this hypothesis, but more significantly demonstrated that for all samples tested, regardless of religion, 74% of the over-65 respondents had completed an Advance Medical Directive. It is postulated that this high rate of implementation is an effect of the lower degree of social integration of the Boca Raton retirees brought about by a physical relocation to Florida from their former family, residential, and business networks.

By the year 2020 with an estimated 55 million persons age sixty-five or greater, the aging of the population will replace population growth in national importance. In a population top heavy with aged individuals, patterns of disease and disability will be radically different from that of a population with a broad base of neonates. Presently, 86% of individuals age sixty-five and greater are living with one or more chronic diseases that require long-term care. The goal of this research was to define the future role of nurses in long-term care of late life adults. The futures methods used in this descriptive study include trend extrapolation and scenario building. The major finding of this research was the overburdening of the existing care systems by demographic pressures. The results of this research provide nurses with a basis for long-term strategic planning related to the future role of nurses in caring for late life adults.