title: Frailty: a term with many meanings and a growing priority for community nurses.
abstract: The question of exactly what frailty is and what that may mean for patients is extremely complex. This is a very conceptual problem requiring a broad and long-term solution. It is not a disease or a condition that can be treated in isolation. Frailty is a collection of contributing factors that culminate in an individual being susceptible to poorer outcomes following health-care interventions and minor illness. The solution to such a complex problem lies in engaging and empowering staff to understand and champion frailty. Once better understood, it will be possible to educate and enable this workforce to recognise the signs of frailty, poor prognosis and patients requiring more specialised palliative care. Informing staff working within a health-care economy of this issue must be the first step in a shift towards managing patients with frailty more appropriately, and streaming their care towards the correct care pathways sooner. This article discusses what frailty is, what it may mean for patients, and attempts to expand on why the construct of frailty is a prevalent issue for community nurses. The link between frailty and mortality is discussed and how targeted appropriate advanced care planning may be used to address this demographic challenge.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Physiotherapist Practitioner, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, Manchester.
authors.forename: Sophie Louise
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wallington
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D016330:Frail Elderly; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D005851:Geriatric Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006113:United Kingdom
keywords: advanced care planning; community health nursing; frail elderly; palliative care