AAN working paper. Wellness and health promotion of the elderly.

One of the missions of the American Academy of Nursing is to formulate strategies for health policy. To arrive at these strategies, Academy members share their thoughts, knowledge, and imagination in working groups at Academy meetings. The Expert Panel on Older Adults, one of these working groups, asked for interested members to formulate a policy paper on wellness and health promotion of the elderly for presentation at the AAN meeting in Los Angeles last October. This was done, and AAN members at that meeting shared their views on the paper. Now, this draft is being published here to invite all Nursing Outlook readers to review and comment on the policy recommendations that have been formulated. We encourage feedback so your ideas can be considered in the development of the paper. The paper will be submitted for approval to the AAN Committee on Health Policy Reform.

Tips on promoting food and fluid intake in the elderly.

Nurses have a crucial role in ensuring adequate food and fluid intake in the elderly. Nurses can improve the nutritional intake of their elderly patients by obtaining proper nutritional assessments, addressing risk factors for malnutrition and fluid deficit, providing enough staff and volunteers to help feed impaired patients, honoring each older person's meal pattern, scheduling drug regimens that do not interfere with food and fluid intake, not scheduling food-related activities and visits too near mealtime, serving food that is palatable and attractively served, ensuring adequate fluid intake, and being creative in finding ways to keep the restless, wandering patient well-nourished and hydrated. Monitoring food and fluid intake requires precise recording of what foods and fluids the older person is ingesting, keeping accurate intake and output records, determining periodic weights, informing the physician of patients' weight loss in a timely manner, and instituting corrective measures at once.

Services for maintaining independence.

Providing a range of health-related services may be necessary for some elderly to remain in independent living environments. Wellness Centers can identify those at risk for disease, promote self-care techniques, and assess the need for other health services. Entrepreneural nurses have the opportunity to seek out congregate housing sites with large aging populations to create ways of promoting healthy lifestyles and a higher quality of life for older persons. A holistic approach to health care helps the elderly to manage chronic disease, maintain high levels of functioning, and promote self-responsibility.