Leaders in Geriatric Nursing

May L. Wykle,
PhD, RN, FAAN

T

o quench is to slake, satisfy, allay,
career for her. After being refused admisor subdue. Dr. May Wykle simply
sion to several nursing schools because of
is an unquenchable person—she
her race, Wykle became the first African
will not be satisfied, always seekAmerican to attend the Ruth Brant School
ing to contribute more to the
of Nursing in Martins Ferry, Ohio.
profession and create opportunities for
Her appreciation of elders began long
nurses from impoverished backgrounds. She
before her professional commitment to geriseems to be everywhere, touching lives
atric care: her grandparents lived with her
worldwide, creating opportunities, and seekfamily when she was a child. Her granding challenges. She is concerned particularly
mother, who was her role model, was very
about opening doors for people who may
active in community and charity organizaneed just a bit of her enthusiastic mentortions and was an informal caregiver.
ship to move them forward until they gain
Wykle learned firsthand about caring
Wykle
their own momentum.
for older adults as her grandmother and
Wykle occupies the Florence Cellar Chair in
mother cared for her sick grandfather and other elderly
Gerontological Nursing at the Frances Payne Bolton
relatives and neighbors in their home. Her life beyond
(FPB) School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve
her many professional activities is consumed with family
University. Cellar endowed the chair for perpetuity in
and friends. She herself is a grandmother who truly in1984, and Dr. Wykle is the first full-time occupant. She is
stills an appreciation for older adults and the importance
also the director of the University Center on Aging and
of intergenerational relationships in her grandchildren,
Health at the university, a fellow of the American
Larry and Alexis.
Academy of Nursing, and a fellow of the Gerontological
On October 23, 1998, at the University Center on
Society of America.
Aging and Health’s 20th anniversary celebration (the
Wykle grew up in rural Ohio and was graduated
Amethyst Ball), Case Western Reserve University
from Mount Pleasant High School, where grades 1
President Agnar Pytte presented Wykle with a leadership
through 12 were housed in the same building. As a young
award on behalf of the center.
woman, her goal was to attend medical school, but after
Wykle has graciously written the following article
working as a nurse’s aide and being mentored and enon her worldwide experiences in geriatric care.
couraged by several nurses, she decided nursing was the
—Priscilla Ebersole, PhD, RN, FAAN

The Exploding Demographics of Aging: A Worldwide Phenomenon

T

he World Health Organization has declared 1999 as
the international year of aging. The celebration is a
fitting tribute given the dramatic increase globally in the
number of adults age 65 and older.
My awareness of international nursing began in
1985, when the 12th World Conference on Health and
Education was held in Dublin, Ireland. I presented a

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paper on elders’ knowledge of good health and self-care
treatment. Since this event more than 12 years ago, the
interest in maintaining health and functional independence has become a worldwide focus. The problems of
caring for dependent elders is an international issue;
major questions about aging involve caregiving, finances,
and functional capacity, regardless of nationality.

Geriatric Nursing Volume 20, Number 1

My international interest in elder care came from
my association with the British system of care through
Doreen Norton, a renowned nurse clinician who served
as the first visiting professor in the Florence Cellar Chair
at the FPB School of Nursing. I was fascinated by her
knowledge of everyday problems confronting older
adults, from the type of furniture they need to the
amount of medication they receive.
I was asked to give a series of 12 lectures in Kenya
on enhancing the care of the elderly. An American colleague wondered why I would be teaching about aging in
Africa, where there are no old people because the life expectancy of Africans at that time was around 47. This
misunderstanding occurred because life expectancy is influenced by the death rate of children and does not provide a perspective of adults older than 47. The problems
of caring for elders in Africa is an emerging issue not unlike the problems of caring for older adults in rural
United States. Elders often are left alone in rural areas
when their children go off to find work in cities; subsequently, no one is left to provide for them. The health
ministries of African countries are quite worried about
how to treat the health problems of an increasing number of old people. This concern was echoed in Botswana,
Zimbabwe, Uganda, and South Africa, countries where I
was privileged to interact with public health nurses. In
Zimbabwe, research in the care of elders and their
unique needs has begun in the medical school and now in
the school of nursing, in which the FPB School of
Nursing, supported by the Kellogg Foundation, helped
establish a master of science in nursing program.
I attended a Nordic Conference on Aging in
Denmark that involved people from multiple disciplines
who taught health professionals from several countries
in the area: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and
Iceland. These countries have formal systems of care that
go beyond informal caretakers, and they are very much
aware of the problems elders face.
In China, nurses and physicians were eager to attend the lectures and clinical conferences on elder care.
China, like Africa, has very few nursing homes, so most
of the care for elders is given by relatives. Women face
mandatory retirement at 55 and thus are able to care for
older adults and young children. China would be an excellent country for nurses to conduct research on the
problems of aging because more than 68 million people
there are 65 and older.
In Taiwan, I was invited to attend the 100th anniversary of the National Taiwan University Hospital.
Most of my presentations were on gerontology. These
nurses and other staff were very interested in aging and
hospice care. One student, Co-Shi Chantal Chao, with
whom I was privileged to work at the FPB School and
serve as chair of her dissertation, developed her research
on the meaning of good dying for Chinese patients. She
subsequently started the hospice movement in Taiwan. I

Geriatric Nursing Volume 20, Number 1

May Wykle at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Africa

had the opportunity to visit one of the units and see the
excellent holistic care being provided.
Geropsychiatry is also an international aging concern. I attended a geropsychiatry conference in Rome
and presented some of the mental health concepts studied in my own research on caregivers. The exchange with
health professionals was exciting.
In the past 2 years, I have taught health professionals from countries that were under the rule of communism until the Cold War ended. Some changes in
government policies have had a negative impact on elders’ health care. Health professionals are eager to revisit the quality of life needs for older adults. Again, most
of the care burden falls on families, and health care agencies are beginning to redesign policies for elder care.
I taught two geriatric educational programs sponsored by Soros, one in Hungary and one in Slovenia. The
interdisciplinary focus on elders at these conferences was
extremely encouraging. Clearly, the quality of care for
aged people is an international challenge to nursing. I
was delighted to visit clinics for older people in both
countries and realize there is much about elder care that
can be learned from an international exchange of ideas.
The project director for these educational endeavors was
Dr. Terry Hokenstad from the Mandel School of Applied
Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.
These international experiences have been valuable
in helping me understand the universal care needs of
older adults and the pivotal role that nurses play in the
interdisciplinary focus on elders. We have much to learn
from each other as we face the new millennium and the
phenomenal growth in the numbers of elders worldwide.
Our most important goal in nursing is to promote the
creativity, health, and independence of older people and
provide an appropriate infrastructure if we are going to
live in a responsible, worldwide aging society.
Geriatr Nurs 1999;20:50-1
Copyright © 1999 by Mosby, Inc.
0197-4572/99/$5.00 + 0

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