ONLINE INSTRUCTIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Online Instructional Environment

Online Instructional Environment

This paper presents a proposal on the topic of online instructional enviroment.

Introduction

Geriatrics is a branch of medicine that deals with the problems and diseases of old age and aging people. Geriatric medicine allows the optimal treatment of the older patient. Geriatric medicine allows health care professionals to maximize function and quality of life for the longest period of time. It requires treating much more than the affected organ system associated with the disease; socioeconomic and family issues need to be addressed as well.

Problem Statement

Chronic illness shifts the focus of care from curing the illness to controlling symptoms, maximizing the patient's function, and helping the patient and family manage the illness. Chronic care usually requires multiple medications, frequently necessitates ongoing lab work or other medical tests, and generally requires the physician to spend more time and effort helping to managing the elder's health. The elder's health care needs can also be complicated by illness-related declines in cognitive function, smaller social networks, and decreased financial assets. No one clinician can be expected to be an expert in all of these areas. The need for multiple clinicians to communicate with each other regularly to coordinate services and manage the health and health-related needs of a defined group of elders has resulted in the growth of geriatric interdisciplinary teams.

Background

During the 13th century, Roger Bacon wrote about how eating in moderation could ward off aging. During the 19th century, George Day wrote about the little interest, or lack of interest, that other doctors showed in caring for the elderly. Then in 1909, the term geriatrics was first used by Ignatz L. Nascher, an Austrian immigrant to the Unites States, who promoted social and biological research in aging and senility as a distinctive stage of life (Mukamel, 2006). Marjory Warren from Britain was the first physician to create special geriatric units in general hospitals and taught medical students about the care of elderly people. Geriatric medicine originally fought for a less discriminative society for elderly people, who were then experiencing discrimination, as they still are today (Fulmer, 2005).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to highlight the importance of gariatric nursing education.

Significance of the Study

The major advances credited to geriatric medicine are the many screening tools used in geriatric assessment, including Dorothea Barthel's functional evaluation of patients undergoing rehabilitation, special hospital acute care units, day hospitals, home visit programs to assess and treat the elderly, and recognition of the importance of resistance exercising. Geriatric medicine has been responsible for great advances in the care of the elderly, with the vast majority of medical schools now having programs in geriatrics and training in the care of older patients having become a standard component of medical students and residency training programs(Coleman, 2004). However, geriatric medicine has struggled with its identity.

Research Questions / Hypothesis

This paper will address the following research questions:

Is it a specialty in its own right, with its clinical interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research team approach to patient care and ...