NUR205 Perspectives on Aging: Terminology

Databases have controlled vocabularies and in order to find scholarly articles on your topic, you need to use the same vocabulary as the database.  Look for a link to thesaurus, subject headings, etc.

Here are some keywords and phrases you could use:

• 65+:  Use the thesaurus in each database to see what term(s) they assign to this age group.  Some may have a preference between elderly, aged, aging, "older people", etc.  Use AND to connect your search terms, depending on your topic:
  • Diseases:  Narrow to a specific one (Alzheimer's, dementia, etc.)
  • Family issues:  Narrow to "sandwich generation", driving, "caretaker stress", "grandparents raising grandchildren", etc.
  • Living arrangements: Narrow to different types ("nursing homes", "assisted living", etc.)

health care (noun):  a set of actions by a person or persons to maintain or improve the health of a patient/consumer

Examples:

• I have developed a plan for my patient’s health care.
• A heavier emphasis on preventive health care by patients and providers will improve health outcomes and quality of life.
• The RNs in this practice provide the majority of the health care for their patients.
• Special case: hyphenated adjectival form of “health care”
  • Health-care services have become more expensive and more complex over the last 50 years.
  • The health-care needs of the patients in this hospital wing are much higher than the needs of the average patient.

healthcare (noun or adjective):  a system, industry, or field that facilitates the logistics and delivery of health care for patients/consumers

Examples:

• Noun
  • I hope to work in healthcare one day.
  • Healthcare’s number and diversity of players grew significantly over the course of the twentieth century.
  • Modern healthcare requires both skilled clinicians and savvy, experienced business professionals to be effective and successful.
• Adjective
  • The healthcare IT industry has been booming as a result of the strong demand for population analytics and effective electronic health record (EHR) systems.
  • Healthcare reform has been a tough but important process to address many of the systematic failures of the healthcare system.
  • Many former Wall Street professionals are moving into healthcare finance as a result of the industry’s massive growth.