Assessment of the older person in the community.

Abstract

As the worlds demographics continue to change and as the life expectancy levels continue to rise, it is clear that as healthcare professionals we will be faced with meeting the needs of more and more over 65year olds who account for 11.3% of the population of Ireland (C.S.O., 2004) and therefore will need to keep ourselves up-to-date with older person issues and health concerns. New Zealand's domains of assessment for older people (2003) are identified as the issues of most importance to older people. These domains are as follows: personal care, safety, food, social participation, daily life and acute episodes. These will now be dealt with individually thus providing the practitioner with a sound evidence base from which to practice. It is recognized that each one of these domains deserves a paper of its own however the aim of this paper is to provide a brief overview and a checklist for the busy practice nurse.