The Transparency of Aging

Aging Matters Through the Years: A Retrospective

The goal of the Aging Matters column is to address important issues related to geropsychiatry and the well-being of older adults. This article offers reflections on columns from the past 15 years and how the aging process has changed in issues related to aging and technology, aging healthfully, end-of-life issues, caregivers for older adults, and growing old in American society. To promote successful aging, we need to hear stories of what it is like to grow old in America. We also need research to better understand the aging process and what is needed for successful aging. In addition, we need policies and resources that help ensure well-trained caregivers who can protect vulnerable older adults and help them age healthfully. Stories of individuals, research, and health care policies need to be connected to create meaningful changes within the health care system. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 59(10), 7-11.].

Personhood: An evolutionary concept analysis for nursing ethics, theory, practice, and research

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this concept analysis was to examine how the concept of personhood has been used in the nursing literature. The person is central to nursing, as the object of nursing work, or care, and a key element of theory. Health and illness confront conventional notions of personhood based on the Western philosophy, in delineating boundaries of life and death, and grappling with pathophysiological changes and alterations in capacities that challenge our understandings of what makes a person whole.

METHODS

Rodgers' evolutionary method was selected; it emphasizes the relationship between concepts, language, and communities of users. A literature search between 1950 and 2017 generated 760 articles; 54 were retained for analysis.

RESULTS

Four themes were identified: (1) personhood and nursing ethics, emphasizing scientific advances, and establishing criteria; (2) personhood as a morally significant, relational process realized through nursing care; (3) personhood lost (or neglected); (4) interventions aimed at understanding, recognizing, and enhancing personhood. Related terms, antecedent concepts, and consequences are explored.

CONCLUSIONS

This preliminary view of personhood in the nursing literature demonstrated how the concept has been developed, used, and understood. Areas for future research include nursing ethics, theory, and clinical practice, as well as links with other academic disciplines.

Transparency

This column is a review of the use of the term transparency as it relates to healthcare with specific emphasis on nursing practice. Concept analysis is guided by Parse’s concept inventing approach. The relevance of this concept to nursing has become increasing important in the language of healthcare. There is no standard definition of the term in nursing or healthcare. Transparency or lack thereof shapes the future of disciplines. The author provides a theoretical definition of transparency for nurses to consider.