Ageing, Spirituality and the Nursing Role

Book Title: Spirituality – The Heart of Nursing

Chapter 6: Ageing, Spirituality and the Nursing Role

Description:

Gerontological nursing is a complex specialty practice area within nursing. It is at this final stage of the life cycle that really holistic nursing care should be practised. Nurses working in this specialty need a sound basic understanding of the spiritual dimension and ageing in our society to be able to deliver effective nursing care to older adults.

Topics:

• Living in an ageing society
• Health issues and ageing
• The spiritual dimension in ageing
• Spiritual development across the life span
• Stages of physical development
• Links between the psychosocial and the spiritual in ageing
• The Spiritual journey in ageing
• The significance of reminiscence: a developmental task of ageing
• The nursing role in spirituality and ageing
• Changes in nursing practice
• Spiritual care is different from psychosocial care
• Spiritual needs assessment
• Spiritual needs of frail older adults
• Assisting older adults to continue their spiritual journey
  • Reminiscence/life review
  • Identifying and dealing with social and spiritual isolation
  • Meeting the spiritual needs of people who have dementia
• Conclusion: pastoral care, spiritual care and ageing
• References
• Other reading

Author:

Elizabeth Mackinlay

RN, RM, DipNEd, BA, BTh, MEd, FRCNA, doctoral candidate

Reverend Elizabeth MacKinlay, a priest in the Anglican Church of Australia, combines her nurse and priest roles by being a senior lecturer in nursing and a chaplain at the University of Canberra. She is also involved in ministry in a rural parish at weekends. She is married with two adult children.

Over the past fifteen years or so, Elizabeth has developed a special interest in gerontological nursing — assessing the need for education in gerontological nursing, designing and teaching programs and conducting research in the area. More recently she has designed and taught a unit of study in pastoral care and ageing at St Mark's Institute of Theology in Canberra. She has presented numerous papers, seminars and workshops on ageing and spirituality, both in Australia and overseas.

Elizabeth is currently a doctoral candidate at La Trobe University in Melbourne. Her topic is 'Ageing: a spiritual dimension'.

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