Gerontological Professional Competency

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Due to the increased vulnerability to external factors, aging adults need constant support and regular health services from nurses and health experts. Therefore, it is essential for a nurse tending to the needs of the specified patients to build a gerontological competency that will guide them through the tasks of addressing aging patients’ concerns (Hash, Jurkowski, & Krout, 2015). Oral health is typically glanced over in aging patients as an issue of ostensibly lesser importance (“Aging in rural places – Part 9, oral health and rural elders,” n.d.). However, the problem needs to be studied and managed on a larger level due to the impact that its development produces on the quality of aging patients’ lives. To encompass the multifaceted nature of aging people’s health concerns, healthcare experts working in rural settings build competencies such as leadership and a clear understanding of the rural environment.

By introducing active collaboration between aging patients and local healthcare practitioners, one will be able to reduce the range of health issues linked to age-specific problems such as oral hygiene and other health problems that aging people tend to have. The isolated nature of rural communities demands the introduction of a program that could introduce the target demographic to crucial guidelines for health management and educate them about self-care (“Community health workers toolkit,” n.d.). As a gerontologist, one will have to provide constant support and useful guidance to the target demographic to assist them in learning basic self-care management strategies, including oral hygiene (“Rural oral health toolkit,” n.d.). The development of the required competency will include acquiring leadership qualities that will help to motivate aging patients to gain new knowledge about preventing health crises (“Rural healthcare workforce,” n.d.). Furthermore, as a gerontologist, one will have to consider building communication strategies for addressing workplace conflicts, patient education, and patients’ personal data transfer. The suggested competencies will help a gerontologist to create the basis for tending to the culture-specific needs of aging patients in the future.