| Description |
The proportion of elderly in the United States is rapidly expanding. Our society is aging and will continue to age in the future. This significant increase in numbers and proportion of the elderly will have a heavy impact on future patterns of employment, taxation, and health care delivery. This project focuses on the health care delivery system and its interaction with the elderly. Research, conducted from both literature and field work, indicates that health care providers are not being adequately trained to diagnose, treat, and educate the elderly. Stereotypes and negative attitudes by health care providers are frequently found to be present towards the elderly and from the elderly to the health care system. The research indicates that one very effective way to change these negative attitudes to positive ones is to educate and train nurses concerning gerontological nursing and give them experiences with the elderly. Nurses have the most interaction with the elderly patient and perform most of the patient education. However, most nurses are not currently being trained to understand the elderly patient or the different aspects of aging. Nursing schools need to follow current American Nurses' Association (ANA) and National League of Nurses (NLN) guidelines for gerontological nursing education. I recommend that a full quarter class on gerontological nursing needs to be implemented in all undergraduate nursing schools in our country. This class should be taught by a gerontology trained instructor. The class would need to be well structured and planned to guide the students through a positive experience in working with the elderly. This class would include classroom as well as clinical experience. Currently, state and national accreditation programs for nursing schools do not dictate specific curriculum content. Gerontological nursing content is not required for accreditation. Furthermore, state Registered Nurse (RN) licensing exams do not test for basic knowledge of gerontological nursing. To assure implementation and uniformity of gerontological content in nursing schools, these accreditation guidelines and licensing exams need to be modified to require knowledge in gerontological nursing. This project contains an in depth presentation of the problem and related demographics involved, the research conducted, the conclusion and recommendations, and a copy of an actual gerontological nursing class proposal given to the nursing program at Weber State University. |
