The Impact of Ageism on Health Care: Quality of Care and Perceptual ImplicationsThe term "ageism" is not easily understood by most of the population due to of its acceptance as normal behavior due to the ingrained attitudes that most people develop in their youth, but healthcare workers must fully embrace this term within their profession in order to avoid contributing to the historical prevalence of prejudice and discrimination. The term ageism is defined by Klein and Liu (2010) as “the discrimination of individuals based solely on age” (p. 334). “Ageism is a social construct internalized in the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of individuals” (Klein and Liu, 2010, p. 334). Robert Butler, a well-known gerontologist, coined the term "ageism", stating that discrimination and prejudice associated with the term are often based on a person's lack of experience with older adults (Ferrini & Ferrini, 2013 , p.6). Ferrini and Ferrini (2013) refer to the strong influence that cultural beliefs and attitudes as well as a person's current age influence perceptions of aging (p. 6). Everywhere in society there are influences that encourage ageist attitudes, such as media through films, books, television, greeting cards, magazines and the Internet (Ferrini and Ferrini, 2013, p. 6) . These negative connotations of aging begin to influence all people from a very young age and therefore impact their attitudes when making career decisions. This has had a direct impact on the number of healthcare providers specializing in geriatrics as well as the attitudes of those providing services to older adults. These false perceptions and negative attitudes are currently impacting the q...... middle of paper ......6 in 2050” (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2012, p. 15). Comparatively, in 1900, the average life expectancy was 47 years (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2012, p. 15). This is relevant with regard to ageism in that the need for health professionals trained in the field of gerontology will be staggering, but due to current perceptions of older adults, there is a distinct lack of these specialized providers . “It is estimated that by 2030, 3.5 million formal healthcare providers – a 35% increase from current levels – will be needed simply to maintain the current ratio of providers to the total population” (Ferrini and Ferrini, 2013, p. 15). ). It is expected that all health care providers will spend at least 50 percent of their time working with older adults; increased skills while eliminating ageist attitudes are essential for quality health care (Ferrini and Ferrini, 2013, p.. 15).