According to the World Health Organization (2017), wellness is defined as the ability of a patient to function at the highest level of physical, spiritual, and emotional …show more content…
As the body ages, many health disparities accompany the ageing body, such as pain. As the older adult ages, psychological and cognitive functions decline. This means that sometimes older adults, who have cognitive deficits such as a decreased ability to verbalize words, or psychological declines such as dementia, many have difficulty communicating the pain they are feeling. When faced with unresolved pain, older adults subsequently develop decreased levels in quality of life (Savvas & Gibson, 2016). Therefore, it is ever important for healthcare providers to be aware of non-verbal cues of decreased comfort and pain. Also aiding in the identification of pain, nurses should directly ask the older adult if they are feeling discomfort or pain and then relay any pain findings to the caring physician. Being a patient advocate for older adults who have trouble communicating because of cognitive declines is an important aspect of providing high quality healthcare services to the ageing