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Gaps in Health Care Limit Options for Older
Adults, MU expert says
Coordination among patients, families and
health care providers needed to ease burden
March 25, 2011 – There are 50 million family
members providing care to older adults in
the United States, according to the MetLife
Foundation and national caregiving
associations. When older adults are
hospitalized and discharged, their families
face numerous choices about where they will
go and how they will receive care. A
University of Missouri nursing expert says
the complexity of this process will
intensify with increasing demands for health
care and workforce shortages.
Lori Popejoy, assistant professor and John
A. Hartford Foundation Claire M. Fagin
Fellow in the Sinclair School of Nursing.
“Coordination among families, patients and
health care providers is essential to
providing effective care for the aging
population in the next few years,” said Lori
Popejoy, assistant professor in
the MU
Sinclair School of Nursing.
“Stress, fear and lack of understanding
often complicate the decision-making process
for families and patients. Open
communication is needed to support
end-of-life care and decision making.”
Hospital visits and discharge processes are
often complicated; family members have to
communicate with each other and health care
team members (HCTMs), which include
physicians, nurses and hospital staff, about
treatments and make decisions with limited
resources.
Popejoy identified common concerns about the
process: going home, advocating for
independence, making decisions and changing
plans.
“A new approach to the hospital discharge
process should further consider the rights
of patients and families – to be fully and
accurately informed of older adults’
conditions and realistic care options,
including home care, personal care and
nursing homes,” Popejoy said.
Popejoy says decision making should be an
interactive and incremental process that
occurs among patients, families and HCTMs. A
HCTM can be designated to communicate
information among care providers, patients
and their families.
In previous research, Popejoy found that
families and patients who worked with a
nurse communicator reported less stress and
better overall care.
The study, “Complexity of Family Caregiving
and Discharge Planning,” was published in
the recent issue of the Journal
of Family Nursing.
Popejoy earned a master’s degree and
doctorate in nursing from MU.
Her work experience in hospitals, nursing
homes and home health care has inspired her
to understand more about the problems and
issues faced by nurses as they work with
older adults and their families. Currently,
she is studying the challenges faced by
health care providers as they discharge
older adults from the hospital, and the
health care transitions faced by elderly
people and their families following
hospitalizations.
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