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Elaine Souder, PhD, RN, project director, inspired
by the John A. Hartford funding, increased the geropsychiatric
content of the University of Arkansas' Geriatric Nurse Practitioner
program. To achieve this end, she collaborated with faculty
to add two new required gerontology-psychology courses to
the GNP curriculum, Geropsychiatric Nursing Theory
and Geropsychiatric Nursing Practicum. First offered
during the summer of 2004, this couplet met with overwhelming
student approval.
Dr. Souder successfully expanded a 2 credit theory course
into the 3-credit Geropsychiatric Nursing Theory. The
course content builds on previous courses, and continues student
development of the advanced knowledge and skills needed to
assess, plan and manage acute and chronic cognitive and emotional
changes that occur with both normal aging and disease processes.
Teaching methods include use of interdisciplinary guest lecturers,
research critiques, self-study modules, literature/movies,
and analyses of case studies. Their assigned novel, As
We Are Now, by May Sarton, prepares its readers
for the realities of aging and death, from its first epigram,
"As you are now, so once was I; Prepare for death and
follow me." It then chronicles an elderly woman's admission
by unconcerned relatives into an understaffed, sub-standard
care facility, sensitizing students to the point of "forever
changing our lives." Dr. Souder contends that students,
upon completion of analysis and reflection of literature,
walk away from her class with important content, as well as
long-lasting, positive, respectful impressions of older citizens.
Movie analysis (Waking Ned Devine, Driving Miss Daisy,
A Beautiful Mind) achieves the same end. This course,
since the second year of the grant, is offered on-line.
The grant team also developed its compliment, a two-credit
180 hour clinical practicum, Geropsychiatric Nursing Practicum,
in which students apply GNP-level knowledge and clinical skills
to manage geropsychiatric problems, promote elder mental health,
and case manage collaboratively with interdisciplinary health
care providers. Using this case management approach, the students
team with a geropsychiatrist and several other mental health
professionals in two long term care agencies that address
elder mental health needs. Students also work with preceptors
in their own communities to minimize time spent traveling
to Little Rock for clinical experiences. This practicum, since
the third year of the grant, is offered on-line.
According to the project director, Dr. Elaine Souder, "both
courses ensure that graduates will have the knowledge they
need to work with older persons who are experiencing mental
health problems."
Student Works:
Student Paper
Reaction to As We Are Now
Student Paper
Reaction to Beautiful Mind
Lessons Learned
Principal investigator Contact Information:
Elaine Souder, PhD, RN
Professor
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Nursing
#529 ED III, Suite 5259, Room 5262
Little Rock, AR 72205
(501) 296-1893
(Fax) (501) 296-1765
souderelaine@uams.edu
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