Nursing For The Old A Booming Future
May 28, 2009
By the Online Nursing Career Content Team – Find Top Nursing Programs Online!
With the average age of the U.S. population climbing higher and higher, the number of opportunities for nurses who can work with the elderly will keep multiplying.
"We don’t have enough providers, such as nurses, doctors and pharmacists in geriatrics for the coming growth of our field," said Dr Marie Bernard, the deputy director of the National Institute of Aging (NIA) in a talk at the University of Maryland, Baltimore's Center for Research on Aging.
The co-founder of the center, Dr Jay Magaziner, explained the scope of the issue.
"With the aging of the post-World War II baby boom generation, a fifth of the U.S. population will be over age 65 within the next 20 years," he said.
That population growth, combined with the fact older people use more services than the young, means current care is not up to the coming task.
Bernard also noted specific health problems for aging U.S. residents. Women do not live as long in the U.S. as in other industrial countries on average. The U.S. obesity rate is highest among industrial countries and continues to climb.
Meeting the growing challenge for first-rate elderly care will fall in some part on nurses. If you are up to that challenge, you should consider pursuing a nursing degree.
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