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Dr. Patricia Burbank, director of the University
of Rhode Island's gerontological clinical nurse specialist
program, taught the first offering of this three credit sophomore
level foundational concepts course with another faculty member,
Tracy McSwain, MSN. Dr. Burbank, who has been teaching since
1975 to masters and doctoral level students, reports that
instructing at the undergraduate level was a refreshing change
for her, impressed by her youthful students' straightforwardness,
innocence, and eagerness to learn. Ms. McSwain, who is participating
in the Mather Lifeways faculty development program in geriatric
nursing, has been teaching the course since. Both instructors
enjoy the course's conventional lecture/discussion style and
the face-to-face interaction.
The course emphasizes holistic care of older adults from
wellness to illness, including the impact of age-related changes
on their health and functional status, collaboration toward
promoting older adult health, and the impact of legal, ethical,
cultural and socioeconomic influences on their nursing care.
A clinical course accompanies the didactic course, providing
opportunity for application of theoretical concepts and physical
assessment skills in various community and in-patient settings
that serve older adults. Class discussion, case studies, and
student debates are employed to examine attitudes toward aging.
Students learn critical reflective inquiry to scrutinize both
their thought processes and nursing actions and to identify
methods for improved practice.
The student debates
encourage critical analysis and provide experience in public
speaking. The students divide into pairs, choose debate topics,
pick pro and con positions, research their topics, and contest
them in front of the larger class. Both sides work together
for one grade. Topics include: euthanasia, botox effectiveness,
elderly suicide risk, health care rationing, elder physical
and substance abuse, and the use of alternative therapies.
The instructors remain impressed with the students' remarkable
innovations in debate technique, which they feel greatly fosters
student learning.
The instructors assess students' changing knowledge and attitudes
upon entry into the school's nursing program and again just
before graduation. They administer the Palmore's
Facts on Aging Quiz, a list of true/false statements about
the elderly (i.e., "Physical strength tends to decline
in old age."). They also use their own Perspectives
Toward Caring for Older Patients Questionnaire, on which
the student either agrees or disagrees with statements about
the elderly (i.e., "Older adult patients complain more
often than younger adult patients.") Results strongly
indicate positive changes in attitudes about the elderly.
At the beginning of the semester, students are instructed
to generate a list of the first 10 adjectives that come to
their minds when considering older people. These initial lists
will often contain words like: cranky, wrinkly, smelly, crabby.
At semester's end, the lists might include the following:
wise, extremely knowledgeable, compassionate, funny. For both
semesters, the number of positive adjectives
almost doubled while the negatives decreased significantly.
The instructors remain thrilled by the students' progression
in thinking that occurs during the course of the semester,
as they learn the basics about geriatric nursing care, and
dispel stereotypic aging myths and adopt improved attitudes.
Palmore's Facts on Aging Quiz
URI's
Perspectives Toward Caring for Older Patient Questionnaire
Debate
Topics
Course Evaluations:
Spring
2003
Fall
2003
Student works:
Adjective
Lists
Student
Journal Entry 1
Student
Journal Entry 2
Teaching
project
Syllabus
Lessons
Learned
Principal Investigators Contact Information:
Tracy MacSwain MSN, RN
College of Nursing
2 Heathman Road,White Hall
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881
401-874-5313 (voice mail)
tmacswain@uri.edu
Pat Burbank, DNSc., RN
College of Nursing
2 Heathman Road
White Hall 143
University of Rhode Island
Kingston, RI 02881
401-874-5314
pburbank@cox.net
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