Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena
| Thesis Title | Age discrimination: ageism and nursing. |
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| Name | Giacalone Giovanni |
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| Supervisor(s) | Saguatti Ilaria |
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| Academic Year | 2021/22 |
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| Thesis type | Non research thesis |
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Abstract
The ageing of the population is now a reality that brings with it several consequences and challenges, one of which is ageism: discrimination based on age. This discrimination is widespread in all social sectors, even in health care, a sector in which the demand for services by the elderly population is highly represented, a sector to which the elderly turn to be cared for and not discriminated against. Within health care, the figure most present in numerical terms is that of the nurse; ageism also falls on them and their work and consequently on the quality of nursing care provided to the elderly. The aim of this paper is to describe the phenomenon of ageism in the light of the literature, how it also affects nurses and what the prevention and treatment strategies can be. The investigation was carried out by means of a literature review: several databases were therefore queried, i.e. CINAHL, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Psycinfo via the search strings "ageism, elder, ageism in nursing, ageism in healthcare,". These investigations showed that ageism is present within the care system and in the attitudes of healthcare professionals, thus also in nursing care. It has been shown that certain attitudes in nursing care can be discriminatory towards older people, such as the language used in patient communication or certain health care interventions that undermine the dignity of the person. However, ageism can be diminished through prevention and treatment strategies such as educational interventions, intergenerational contact and, in general, a holistic view of nursing care. In conclusion, nursing care can be the central focus of a change aimed at reducing ageism.
