Education/Community Collaborations for Undergraduate Nursing Gerontological Clinical Experiences

Abstract

Abstract:In 2000, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing developed guidelines to help nurse educators incorporate gerontological nursing content into baccalaureate curricula. In 2001, the Hartford Foundation also provided grant monies to nursing programs to support gerontology curricular innovations and new clinical experiences. The funding allowed faculty to focus time, energy, and resources on gerontological nursing education. We, the authors, representing two funded schools of nursing, collaborated with community agencies to develop undergraduate gerontological clinical learning experiences and are encouraged by the results. This article describes the development of these collaborations and serves as a model for other schools of nursing. The education/community collaborations described here focus on clinical learning strategies, implementation activities, and outcomes/benefits of the experiences. Both educational programs had supportive administration, faculty willing to participate in curriculum change, organized plans to implement geriatric curricular enhancement, and long-standing community partnerships.

Critical action research applied in clinical placement development in aged care facilities

“…The characteristics of the enriched environments experienced by these students comprise security, purpose, achievement and significance in learning to care proficiently for older people and belonging to the community of the workplace. The findings support other studies on clinical placements in RAC in The United Kingdom, Norway and Australia (Barba and Gendler 2006; Robinson et al. 2008; Berntsen and Bjork 2010).…”

“…There is general agreement that clinical placements in undergraduate programs should reflect the broader‐spectrum nature of the care of older people in healthcare settings (Barba and Gendler 2006; Chen et al. 2007).…”

Nursing students’ knowledge and beliefs about care of older adults in a shifting context of nursing education

“…Current recommendations state that nursing curricula should contain both a required gerontological course with theoretical (also referred to as lecture content) and clinical practice components, and gerontological content threaded throughout the curriculum (American Association of Colleges of Nursing 2000). This proves challenging, however, for a variety of reasons, including the growing popularity of accelerated programmes and the common perception that curricula are already overflowing, creating the argument that there is simply no time for more gerontological nursing content (Barba & Gendler 2006, Deschodt et al. 2010).…”

“…A literature search for research published in English between 2000–2010 revealed that most of the research focusing on gerontological education have been American studies detailing the successes and challenges of incorporating gerontological content into curricula (Aud et al. 2006, Barba & Gendler 2006, Blais et al. 2006, Burbank et al.…”

“…2010, Ironside et al. 2010); perceptions that curricula are already overloaded (Barba & Gendler 2006, Deschodt et al. 2010); and the persistent belief that older adult care is simple (Brown et al.…”