Creative strategies for a stand-alone gerontology course for the nursing curriculum.

TODAY, ONLY 2 PERCENT OF NEW NURSE GRADUATES REPORT THAT THEY WILL SPECIALIZE IN GERONTOLOGY (AUD, BOSTICK, MAREK, & McDANIEL, 2006). Among the reasons students do not choose this specialty are a lack of effective preparation, too few faculty with certification in gerontology, and inadequate clinical experience focused on older adults (Abbey et al., 2006). The pay in long-term care, uninspiring clinical settings, and a shortage of role models are other reasons students avoid this specialty area (Abbey et al.). Adequate preparation of nursing students to care for older adults in a knowledgeable, skillful, and caring manner benefits students, clients, and society. Nursing programs are needed that help students develop more positive attitudes and a greater willingness to work with the older adult population. Students with more positive attitudes will be more understanding and accommodating when working with older adults (Kirkpatrick & Brown, 2006). Nursing curricula that offer inspiring and challenging interactions with older adults can bring about attitudinal change in students (Burbank, Dowling-Castronovo, Crowther, & Capezuti, 2006). For example, the opportunity for students to be mentored by older adult community volunteers (MacDonald & Gallant, 2007) led to students who were more empathetic, aware of ageism, and respectful of older people. The focus of gerontology courses should be on improving client function, rather than curing disease (Scott-Tilley, Marshall-Gray, Valadez, & Green, 2005), and medical model of cure must be replaced with a model of care (Quinn et al., 2004). Scott-Tilley et al. wrote about the importance of focusing on successful aging, health promotion, holistic assessments, and models of health care. The focus of this article is the development and evaluation of a two-credit, elective senior nursing course for a baccalaureate program. The course was offered for the first time in the fall of 2008 and was envisioned as an efficient method for quickly incorporating gerontology information into the curriculum. About half of the program's 48 seniors completed the course. Stand-alone courses described in the literature were examined as models for the course. Blais, Mikolay, Jedlicka, Strayer, and Stanek (2006) recommend using the literature and arts to explore how aging is discussed in those mediums. Kirkpatrick and Brown (2006) used movies to help raise issues about aging for class discussions. Burbank et al. (2006) used debates to explore issues surrounding aging and ageism. Plowfield, Raymond, and Hayes (2006) required attendance at a national gerontological conference as part of the didactic component of the course. Blais et al. recommended using Palmore's (1977) Facts on Aging Quiz as a pretest/postest to assess changes in students knowledge, attitudes, and biases. Using this assessment at the beginning of the course helps faculty address negative attitudes early on (Burbank et al., 2006). Creative Strategies for a Stand-Alone Course For the author's course, careful consideration was given to selecting a text. Mauk's Gerontological Nursing: Competencies for Care (2006), which focuses on American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing (HIGN) competencies (2006), was selected, with journal articles used to augment the text. The HIGN Try This[R] series of assessments supplemented the readings. Assignments included teaching an older adult about a health promotion topic and having a conversation with an older adult. This involved writing a process recording of the conversation and analyzing communication techniques. After touring a community senior center, students spent three additional hours at the center, observing and interacting with the older adults and exercising with them. They then wrote a two-page reflective journal about their experience. The course focused on affective, cognitive, and psychomotor activities and assignments. …