Nursing is currently facing a wide range of challenges, which require breakthroughs in order to prevent them. The first major issue is an ever-aging population, where the proportion of elderly adults is increasing. This means that the healthcare sector will be overwhelmed by patients suffering from age-related health diseases. A potential solution for such a demographic shift is to expand the elderly care sector, where specialized healthcare professionals will serve the given age group. The second challenge is the increase in chronic disease occurrence rate, where more people have diabetes, obesity, and other metabolic disorders. It is stated that the root cause of these problems is inflammation, which also contributes to the development of cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Thoudam et al., 2016). The latter two are the main causes of death across the globe, which means that strong measures need to be undertaken. The inflammation issue can be resolved by either convincing the population to lead a healthier lifestyle or designing anti-inflammatory drugs.
I believe that these two issues will manifest themselves in a healthcare crisis because the industry might not be fully prepared for the waves of elderly and chromatically ill patients. Therefore, a potential nurse needs to be highly educated and properly trained in order to ensure the efficiency of care. I am certain that my personal nursing legacy will be built on making the handling process of these challenges easier. I will need to further my education in order to understand the underlying factors of health problems of old age or inflammation. There needs to be a change in perspective regarding these challenges because they are not mainly curable. One cannot stop the aging process or eliminate a metabolic disease. Therefore, a nursing approach needs to shift from “care to cure” to “care to sustain”.
Reference
Thoudam, T., Jeon, J. H., Ha, C. M., & Lee, I. K. (2016). Role of mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membrane in inflammation-mediated metabolic diseases. Mediators of Inflammation, 1-18.