Modelos del cuidado de enfermería en el envejecimientopasado, presente y futuro

Abstract

The global demographic reality, with the increase of the elderly population on one hand, and the changes in their lifestyle characteristics on the other, requires a transversal reframing of those goods and services that will be offered by society. Through the research contained, an approach to the probable elderly nursing care evolution and its key points is suggested, as the social service that it is, highly valued and widely consumed. One of these aspects involves knowing the role of the future elderly care nurse and the model care background itself, both submitted as research purposes. Applying quantitative and qualitative methodologies to defined population samples, from Jaén and Albacete cities, the outcomes indicate that the elderly care nurse's role is rarely known by the elderly users and their informal caregivers, that there is a low interest from both genders of medical and nursing students in this specialty field, and that people whose parents are nowdays living at a nursing home really know what kind of care is provided and would prefer to get an specialised care at home for themselves in the future. These results' meaning are added to other researches' outcomes around the world, concluding that the social invisibility of this specialty compromises its own evolution, in a direct (lack of resources) and an indirect (absence of new vocations) way, and that the future elderly profile becomes just a consumer profile, who demands for a specialised care delivered at home.