Ageism in Nursing: Impacts and Interventions for Geriatric Care
This paper examines ageism and its consequences within nursing practice, with a focus on debunking myths held by nurses and nursing students regarding geriatric patients. Drawing on a nursing education specialty track, the paper analyzes how prejudice against older adults affects care at three levels: the micro (individual patient health and wellbeing), the meso (organizational culture and technology adoption), and the macro (systemic delays, misdiagnosis, and discharge planning). The paper concludes by proposing communication-centered interventions at the microsystem level to improve elderly patient outcomes across all three levels of care.
- Introduction: Ageism in Nursing Practice: Defines practice concern and nursing education context
- Micro-Level Impact: Individual Patient Health: Ageism harms individual patient health and treatment
- Meso-Level Impact: Organizational Culture: Institutional bias creates culture of elder prejudice
- Macro-Level Impact: Systemic Inefficiencies: Ageism causes delays, misdiagnosis, and discharge problems
- Proposed Intervention: Promoting Effective Communication: Communication strategies to improve geriatric outcomes
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What makes this paper effective
- Organizes a complex problem (ageism in nursing) into a clear three-level analytical framework — micro, meso, and macro — giving the argument a logical and systematic structure.
- Uses peer-reviewed citations to ground claims about physician and nurse bias, lending academic credibility to what could otherwise read as anecdotal.
- Connects the proposed solution (effective communication) back to all three problem levels, demonstrating coherent integration between diagnosis and remedy.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates multi-level systems analysis, a common framework in health policy and nursing scholarship. By mapping a single issue — ageist myths among nursing staff — onto individual, organizational, and structural levels, the author shows how a single attitudinal problem produces compounding systemic effects, a technique that strengthens the case for intervention.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by identifying the practice concern and its relevance to nursing education. It then moves sequentially through micro, meso, and macro levels of impact, each illustrated with concrete clinical examples. It closes with a proposed intervention at the microsystem level, with brief notes on how that intervention ripples upward through meso and macro levels. The structure is compact but complete, resembling a position paper or policy brief more than a traditional essay.
Introduction: Ageism in Nursing Practice
The concern common to my future practice setting is clarifying and dispelling proven myths held by nurses and nursing students regarding geriatric patients. My specialty track is nursing education, and this paper seeks to expand knowledge of nursing care with specific reference to geriatric residents as a vulnerable population, with the goal of reducing bias among nursing staff. It is important to note that the concern highlighted above impacts the healthcare system not only at the micro level, but also at the meso and macro levels.
Micro-Level Impact: Individual Patient Health
At the micro level — that is, the individual level — myths among nurses and nursing students regarding geriatric patients directly affect patient health and wellbeing, particularly in terms of physical and mental health. As ageism affects clinical decision-making, the consequences for older adults can be severe. As Lagana, Gavrilova, Carter, and Ainsworth (2017) point out, ageism can have extremely negative impacts on seniors. One example of prejudice against seniors in healthcare settings is when "a doctor has lower expectations for a senior's ability to recover and adjusts treatment plans accordingly" (Lagana, Gavrilova, Carter, and Ainsworth, 2017, p. 82). This bias can prevent older patients from accessing the level of care that would result in meaningful improvements to their health and wellbeing.
In fact, "there is ample evidence for ageism among physicians in diagnostic procedures, treatment of older patients, and interactions with older patients" (Ben-Harush, Shiovitz-Ezra, Doron, Alon, Leibovitz, Golander, Haron, and Ayalon, 2017, p. 40). These documented patterns underscore the urgency of addressing ageist attitudes within nursing education and practice.
Meso-Level Impact: Organizational Culture
At the meso level — that is, the organizational level — myths among nurses and nursing students regarding geriatric patients can result in the creation of an organizational culture of prejudice toward older adults. In this environment, older patients may be labeled as child-like, cranky, or helpless. When ageism becomes institutionalized, methods and approaches that could positively affect the efficiency of the entire system may be avoided based on the mistaken belief that they are counterproductive when applied to older patients. A clear example of this is the reluctance to adopt new technology in geriatric care settings, where bias leads staff to underestimate older adults' capacity to engage with or benefit from technological interventions.
References
Ben-Harush, A., Shiovitz-Ezra, S., Doron, I., Alon, S., Leibovitz, A., Golander, H., Haron, Y., & Ayalon, L. (2017). Ageism among physicians, nurses, and social workers: Findings from a qualitative study. Eur J Ageing, 14(1), 39–48.
Lagana, L., Gavrilova, L., Carter, D. B., & Ainsworth, A. T. (2017). A randomized controlled study on the effects of a documentary on students' empathy and attitudes towards older adults. Psychol Cogn Sci, 3(3), 79–88.
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