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Rewards of working

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By BOB WEINSTEIN, Special Sections correspondent

Published: March 2, 2008

It's no secret that virtually all health care jobs offer a secure and challenging future. It's hard to find a niche with so many entry points. You can break into it with a high-school diploma or a bachelor's degree.

Then it's up to you to build a career and take it any direction you choose. Over the past two years, several high-potential fields within the sprawling health care sector have beenidentified, but a special high-demand specialty has been neglected: working with the elderly. This growing niche requires doctors, registered nurses, licensed vocational nurses, physician's assistants, pharmacists, social workers, psychiatrists and physical, occupational and speech therapists.

Experts unanimously agree that working with the elderly is one of the most challenging and rewarding of all health care jobs.

Most senior citizens will require medical care — it's just a question of when and to what degree. A spokesman for the American Geriatrics Society said, "No single field will experience a shortage of trained professionals as steep as the geriatrics profession."

A few telling statistics illustrate the importance of working with the 60-plus generation.
There are 600 million people over the age of 60 in the world, and in 2025, there will be double this number.

According to Census Bureau projections, the number of people younger than 50 will decline until 2020, while the 50-plus population will grow by 76 percent. Already, the 85-plus group, which numbers 3.6 million, is 29 times larger than it was just seven years ago.

It takes a special person to work with the elderly. For many dedicated health care professionals, caring for the elderly is more than a commitment — it's a genuine calling.

But it's not easy work. Here's why:

l Many elderly patients require a great deal of tact and care. Some require around-the-clock care.

l The work can be demoralizing and depressing. But it also can be challenging and gratifying.

l Working with the elderly also can be a life-enhancing experience. Not only are you providing a valuable service, but it's also an opportunity to learn more about yourself, particularly your own mortality.

Think you can cut it?

The late Jan Shepherd, who was an expert in long-term care of the elderly, listed seven essential requirements necessary for working with the elderly:

1. Patience and compassion. Most elderly patients need empathy. It's likely that they've lost loved ones and friends, and they're now dealing with their own decline. It's essential that the health care worker be sensitive to these facts.

2. Knowledge of best practices. The elderly encounter a host of problems and challenges as they age. The health care professional has to deal with sleep disturbances, eating and feeding problems, confusion and physical deterioration.

3. Sensitivity to families' needs. Health-care workers have to be sensitive to their patients' families' special needs, and also must educate them about the changes their loved ones are undergoing.

4. Stamina. As populations in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities increase, certified nursing assistants find themselves doing more strenuous hands-on nursing, such as bathing and physically moving patients from beds to wheelchairs.

5. Assessment skills. Many elderly patients decline quickly. Health care professionals must manage, observe and record a complex set of medical conditions.

7. Ability to work independently. Health care professionals have to make quick, independent decisions as elderly patients' needs change from day to day.

Want to learn more?

To find out about careers and jobs serving the elderly, visit the following Web sites: The Gerontological Society of America, www.geron.org; Careers in Aging, www.careersinaging.com; Florida Geriatric Care Managers Association (a chapter of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers), www.fgcma.org; and Aging Wisely (locations in Clearwater, Port Richey, St. Petersburg, Sun City Center and Tampa), www.agingwisely.com.

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