The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University College of Nursing has created two sets of resources for nursing faculty and clinical instructors to help them guide students in caring for older adults, in both hospital and nursing-home settings. More than 50% of hospital patients, 80% of home care patients, and 90% of residents of nursing homes are over age 65, yet the instructors who supervise students may have had little geriatric content in their own education.
The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University College of Nursing has created two sets of resources for nursing faculty and clinical instructors to help them guide students in caring for older adults, in both hospital and nursing-home settings. More than 50% of hospital patients, 80% of home care patients, and 90% of residents of nursing homes are over age 65, yet the instructors who supervise students may have had little geriatric content in their own education.
“Much of what nursing students learn occurs at the bedside during rotations with clinical instructors in hospitals, home care, and nursing homes,” says Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, associate director of the Hartford Institute. “With the help of up-to-date resources, these instructors can better reinforce geriatric best practices with their students.”
Resources for Faculty in Hospital-Based Clinical Rotations
The Hartford Institute and American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) have prepared two modules to help clinical nursing faculty teach undergraduate nursing students to integrate care of older adults in hospitals. This project was funded by the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women. The modules use a case-study design with an “evolving case” progression, taking faculty members through a typical clinical day on a medical/surgical unit and providing teaching strategies to integrate content on assessment and dementia into the clinical assignment, the pre-conference, bedside teaching, post-conference, charting, and clinical evaluation. The modules are available at www.hartfordign.org/education/Baccalaureate_education. (Continuing Education Units are available.)
- The first, 30-minute, module briefly summarizes content and resources on assessment and dementia. It then provides teaching strategies for implementing this content into a typical undergraduate student assignment.
- The second, 15-minute, module uses an actual patient scenario to illustrate how to integrate content into a typical clinical day.
- A six-minute tutorial is available to review the major geriatric nursing resources referred to in the modules at consultgerirn.org/uploads/Flash/site_tutorial/site_tut.html.
In addition, a free archived webinar is available at: www.aacn.nche.edu/Faculty/FacultyLink/webinararchive.htm for clinical faculty to foster discussion on when and how to use these modules.
Resources for Faculty Working with Students in Nursing Homes
The Hartford Institute and American Association of Colleges of Nursing, with funding from the Commonwealth Fund and Picker Institute, have also developed a set of six Web-based modules that help nursing faculty maximize their use of nursing homes as clinical training sites, with a special focus on nursing homes involved in resident-directed care and culture change. They are available at: www.hartfordign.org/education/Baccalaureate_education.
This six-module training program covers:
- The basics of nursing homes, their structures, processes, and outcomes, how they are monitored and reimbursed by federal and state government, and staff and resident characteristics.
- Nursing practice in nursing homes, including nurse hierarchy, leadership and governance; actual and recommended nurse staffing; delivery of nursing services.
- Resident-directed care and culture change in nursing homes—how they are evaluated and the benefits of choosing culture change nursing homes as clinical placement sites.
- Structuring student placements in nursing homes: how the nursing home maximizes learning objectives and student exposure to resident-directed care and culture change.
- Introducing resident-directed care and nursing home culture change—a case study: strategies to structure student clinical experiences in culture-change nursing homes and integration of principles of resident-directed care into clinical experiences in traditional nursing homes.
- Nursing home preparation/readiness for clinical sites: How nursing homes can position themselves as clinical training sites for nursing students.
In addition, three free archived webinars are available at: www.aacn.nche.edu/Faculty/FacultyLink/webinararchive.htm for clinical faculty to foster discussion on when and how to use nursing homes as clinical placements and to review the modules listed above. Part 1 covers the basics of nursing homes. Part 2 covers resident-directed care and culture change in nursing homes, and Part 3 covers structuring student placement in nursing homes and nursing home preparation/readiness as a clinical site.
Featured webinar speakers are: Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, Sarah Greene Burger, RN-C, MPH, FAAN, and Ethel L. Mitty, EdD, RN, of the Hartford Institute; Christine Mueller, PhD, RN, FAAN, of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing; and Laurie Dodge Wilson, MSN, RN, ANP-BC, GNP-BC, of AACN.
Under the leadership of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) and the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, more than 600 baccalaureate nursing programs nationally have markedly increased their curriculum offerings in care of older adults, providing required geriatric courses and/or integrating geriatric content throughout the clinical courses.