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Limiting care: should age be a criterion?
AACN Clinical Issues in Critical Care Nursing
|May 1, 1990
Summary
Rising healthcare costs and an aging population create resource dilemmas. This article examines age-based rationing and its implications for critical care nurses advocating for patients.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Economics
- Medical Ethics
- Geriatric Care
Background:
- Increasing healthcare expenditures and a growing elderly population (over 65) strain healthcare resources.
- This demographic shift creates a critical imbalance between service demand and available resources.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the complex ethical and practical issues surrounding age-based healthcare rationing.
- To examine the role of critical care nurses in advocating for patients within resource-limited systems.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and ethical analysis of age-based resource allocation proposals.
- Discussion of the critical care nurse's role in patient advocacy.
Main Results:
- Age-based rationing is a controversial but proposed solution to healthcare resource limitations.
- No simple solutions exist for the dilemma of allocating healthcare resources based on age.
Conclusions:
- Critical care nurses must understand the complexities of age-based rationing to effectively advocate for patients.
- Strategies for enhancing nurses' advocacy skills in this context are discussed.
Keywords:
Health Care and Public Health