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The biomedical construction of ageing: implications for nursing care of older people
Author(s) -
Koch Tina,
Webb Christine
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1996.10014.x
Subject(s) - feeling , narrative , gerontological nursing , psychology , health care , nursing , depersonalization , existentialism , gerontology , medicine , social psychology , clinical psychology , burnout , political science , emotional exhaustion , linguistics , philosophy , law
This paper reports on an existential phenomenological study carried out in a care of elderly people setting in a 1000‐bed hospital in the United Kingdom Fourteen participants were interviewed, each on several occasions Two themes derived from these narratives are discussed, revealing negative experiences which are related to feelings of powerlessness These two themes, routine geriatric style and segregation, are shown to arise from the history and culture of the wards and are shown to result in care deprivation and depersonalization Patients' individual needs are ignored as they become the objects of inflexible routines within health care practice In order to understand the situation, the history of care of older people and the biomedical construction of ageing are examined It is concluded that what is needed is a wider social and political movement which opposes ageism and challenges ageist stereotypes In addition, in health care there is a need for a review of the routine geriatric style of care and of segregation based on age and a social gerontology programme for nurse education