As summer winds down and fall begins, my thoughts take me back to the academic setting and the arrival of new classes of nursing students. After being in an academic setting for the last 28 years of my career, it makes me a bit nostalgic remembering how excited the new junior nursing students, in particular, were each fall. For the last 7 years of my academic career, I taught "Care of the Older Adult" to junior nursing students. A couple of weeks into the semester one fall, a student approached me after class and shared what his future plans might be. The conversation went something like this:
Student: Dr. Larsen, I won't be needing your course much when I graduate.
Me: And why is that?
Student: Well, I'm going to work in the ER or ICU so I won't be caring for older adults very much.
Me: What?
Quite frankly, I had to hold back my laughter. Obviously he hadn't listened to the first class or two when we had discussed the aging epidemic, where we see such individuals in the healthcare system, and the challenges of caring for older adults now and in the future.
Statistics tell the story. Currently, in the United States, about one in every seven persons or 15.2% of the population is over the age of 65 years. However, by the year 2030, with all of the baby boomers older than age 65 years, this number will increase to one in five persons or 20% of the population (Administration on Aging, 2018). By 2035, it is estimated that persons over the age of 65 years will outnumber children under age of 18 years for the first time in U.S. history (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). In 2016, the 85 years and older population numbered 6.4 million; however, that number is projected to double to more than 14.6 million by 2040, a 129% increase (Administration on Aging, 2018).
That's why the work of the National Institute on Aging is so important.
In 2013, a group of scientists, advocates, and others interested in aging convened at the National Institutes of Health to look at "new ways to understand how common mechanisms that govern aging might underlie the occurrence and pathology of diverse chronic disease" (National Institute on Aging, n.d., para. 7). A second goal was to identify pathways for collaboration between researchers interested in this work. The conference findings were published in June 2014 (Burch et al., 2014). The 2016 Geroscience Summit focused on cancer, HIV/AIDS, and diabetes and how negative effects of these conditions along with their treatments might accelerate age-related physical decline and disease. The third Geroscience Summit is scheduled for November 2019 at the National Institutes of Health.
The ultimate goal of geroscience is to increase the research on basic mechanisms that drive aging, which could lead to more effective clinical interventions for persons with chronic conditions. By studying what happens during aging at the genetic, molecular, and cellular levels, researchers hope to discover the similarities and differences among chronic conditions as they relate to aging.
What does this mean for practitioners? As our acute healthcare system continues to increase the survival of those with traumatic injuries and chronic disease, we are seeing long-term survivors 40-50 years postinjury and postdiagnosis of a chronic condition. How is aging affecting those individuals, or is it the conditions that are affecting the aging process? Fascinating research that affects everyone.
Pamala D. Larsen, PhD, RN
Editor-in-Chief
Loveland, Colorado
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