Gerontological Education Toolkit
Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors
Getting Started
Here is a guide to help you identify some strategies to integrate gerontological content into the curriculum.
Identify the faculty members who have consistently served as change agents; engage them in the process of curriculum exploration.
Talk up the gerontological nursing message with your faculty. For example, use a "Gerontological Lens" for formulating case studies and simulation activities. Write exam questions related to care of older adults and embed them into existing courses. Assign research projects that incorporate care of older adults. At graduation, give awards that focus on excellence in care of older adults.
Create "Gerontological Teaching and Learning Moments."
There is a body of best practice knowledge about the care of older adults. Make resources readily available for faculty and students by using the ACES website to find online learning activities. For example, visit The John A. Hartford Institute For Geriatric Nursing Website.
Determine a best approach in your school/department
for implementing curricular change. Consider what has worked in the past and the possibility of trying something new. (examples: form a
task force, curriculum committee, faculty governance
committee). Some faculty find it helpful to engage in course mapping to assess the level of content integration about care of older adults across the curriculum. One list of competencies developed by AACN can be found at www.aacn.nche.edu/education/gercomp.htm. Additional guidelines for integration of care of older adults in pre-licensure curricula will be developed as part of the ACES initiative.
Encourage creative gerontological assignments for students. Examples include interviews with older adults, journaling of experiences with older adults and their families, and evaluation of clinical settings from a gerontological perspective.
In addition, The Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative website gives an overview of all of the organizations that are partnering together to meet the challenge of caring for older adults. Click on this link to learn more about our collaborative effort.
www.hgni.org/about.html
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