Introduction to Bone Changes (Nursing)

00:01 Hi, welcome to our series on Geriatric Nursing.

00:05 Now this one is a little different.

00:07 In this series, we talk about age related changes in health.

00:11 But in this particular part of the series, we're going to look at bone growth across the lifespan.

00:17 So we're going to teach you about what happens to your bones from birth, all the way through a geriatric clients age.

00:24 So take a look at this picture.

00:26 I got to put this in here because this is my niece, her husband, and our brand new baby in our family.

00:33 His name is Calvin.

00:35 So, I want you to start thinking about what happens to our bones as we age from Calvin's age? Is he adorable in that little Santa hat or what? And as the bones changed through Haley, and his dad, Marcus's age, So you're ready? Let's look at bone growth across.

00:53 Now, when I got to talk to my niece, right after she delivered the baby.

00:58 It's incredible to me to think that, Calvin had just been inside her body a few minutes before we got to talk.

01:06 I mean, look at this all folded up, and what we call, the fetal position.

01:12 Can you imagine if you tried to get in this tighter position now? Yeah, it wouldn't work.

01:17 Now, when we're looking at geriatric clients, it's going to be an even bigger deal.

01:22 So let's take something simple, like have you changed a diaper of a baby? When you lay them on their back, it's an easy thing, just a fold their little toes right up to their nose, right? They are that flexible.

01:35 And I'm going to introduce you to our friend Enrique who's from our geriatric nursing series.

01:39 And we use two friends, Jose and Enrique.

01:43 Now, you won't see Jose in this series right now.

01:45 But Enrique is our example of what happens when someone's aging, but they also have comorbidities. They have other disease processes.

01:54 So in the rest of our series, you'll see Jose, he's got a big smile, he's super active, and he has only experienced the changes in aging that are normal.

02:03 Poor Enrique has had a much rougher go.

02:05 In fact, you'll see he has a cane.

02:08 He doesn't have much mobility.

02:10 So we are going to compare the baby's experience and you can pretend that's baby Calvin and Enrique to kind of show you how the differences are, as we age.

02:21 Now, these are two extremes, a baby and then a geriatric client who's had comorbidities.

02:26 But can you imagine now, we wouldn't lay Enrique down on his back and try and touch his toes to his nose, right? That's silly.

02:35 But Jose would be able to bend over and touch his toes.

02:39 Enrique, that would not even be safe.

02:42 In fact, someone in Enrique's health, it's difficult for them to put their socks on, to put their shoes on because they are not very flexible, and they lose their balance, extremely easily.

02:54 So, that's the difference, right? We got a baby who we could be totally flexible, but if we tried to do the same with Enrique, we would have a problem because there's a big difference between the actual bones of a baby and a patient who ages.

03:12 Let's take a look at that.

03:13 So you understand what I'm talking about.

03:15 Because bones go through a number of changes as they grow.

03:19 So when babies like Calvin are born, their bones are mostly cartilage.

03:23 That's why they're so flexible, because cartilage, it's soft, and it's flexible.

03:27 But as babies grow, the cartilage in their bone grows, and we've got some really cool graphics for you to show you how this works.

03:35 So over time, and with a little help from calcium, the bones are going to replace the cartilage in a process called ossification.

03:44 Okay, so when bones are replacing, they're replacing the cartilage, you don't have that flexibility, more they come strong, and that's what the calcium does in the process.

03:54 Okay, now we're gonna give you some pretty cool pictures for you to see and look at how the bones look.

03:59 And now you see the changes that they're made.