Faculty of Health

ASSESSMENT: Essay

Please read these guidelines in addition to the marking matrix (available on UTS Online) for this assessment item

Word Limit: 1250 - 1500 words (this does not include the appendices)

Task: This essay is based on a discussion with an older person about their experiences of the ageing process. Following this discussion, your essay will outline the person's needs (from their perspective) and then the key supports you could put in place to enhance their support and to enable healthy ageing. The steps involved are described below:

Step 1: Think about 1 older person who you could have a conversation with (for those who do not have anyone they know locally, a conversation over the phone is fine)

Step 2: Outline the purposes of this assignment to the older person to see if they would be happy to participate. Please refer to the information sheet provided on UTS Online to assist this step.

Step 3: Have a discussion (and take brief notes) with the older person based around a few key questions (you can adapt or expand on these):

1. Could you tell me about yourself and any changes you have noticed as you have grown older?

2. What are some of the best things about growing older for you?

3. What are some of the hardest things you have found in relation to growing older?

4. What is important for you now and into the future? Do you foresee any need for support in achieving these goals?

5. Is there anything else you would like to tell me about your health and wellbeing?

Step 4: Immediately following this discussion, write a detailed summary of the conversation for your records. Please attach a one page summary of this as Appendix 1 to your essay (not included in the word count).

Step 5: Commence writing your essay covering the following key areas:

? Introduction: Outline person centred assessment and how you plan to demonstrate this approach within your essay. Also outline why this is important in relation to aged care.

? Critical reflection of your discussion with an older person: this should contain evidence of the consideration of the principles of person centred assessment around the narrative gained from your discussion. Following this, you should outline the key issues (positive or negative) identified from the older person's perspective.

? Critical review of current literature: this should contain evidence of analysis of various viewpoints and research findings in relation to the issues described by the older person (if they describe many, just choose at least 2 to work with for this essay). A minimum of six (6) high-level journal papers published since 2004 is necessary for an adequate literature review. All articles must be outlined within a summary table using the headings provided below (NB: a template using these headings is available on UTS Online):

o Authors / Study design / Sample / Intervention / Findings and Implications

o Please attach this summary as Appendix 2 to your essay (NB: this summary table is not included in your word count)

? Discussion: this should describe how to implement care based on the information provided from your discussion and the literature reviewed. You should consider what key supports you could put into place for this older person, inclusive of a multidisciplinary team involvements and how you could best support healthy ageing for this person. Recommendations for evidence based best practice should be discussed. The setting of care (community, hospital or residential aged care) must be outlined and any challenges that exist in relation to implementing your care plan in this setting. Furthermore, possible ways to manage these challenges should be provided.

? Conclusion: this should tie together your main arguments made above.

Assignment purpose

The purpose of this assignment is for students to demonstrate their ability to identify and describe issues of concern for an older person, access and critically analyse the literature, select appropriate articles and prepare a critical analysis of the topic area. This will enable students to adopt and incorporate evidence based interventions in future practice. In addition, students will be able to demonstrate their ability to write clearly and succinctly to reflect their understanding of the topic. Students will receive feedback as per the marking criteria and within the paper.