Service Learning With a Geriatric Population: Changing Attitudes and Improving Knowledge

"Elderly care through new eyes: Insights from Spain's future nurses" A phenomenological study

This study explores nursing students' perceptions of institutionalized elderly care, aiming to identify attitudes and biases that influence their academic and professional development in gerontological nursing. Conducted with 128 students across two campuses, this qualitative study utilized 15 focus groups for data collection. Five primary themes emerged through thematic and inductive analysis: Institutionalized Living, Stereotypes, Improvement Proposals, Exemplary Practices and Positive Observations and Educational Strategies and Person-centered Care Integration. Findings underscore the multifaceted nature of elderly long-term care settings, highlighting the prevalence of loneliness. Despite institutionalization's intent to mitigate loneliness, results suggest its effectiveness is variable, with a deficiency in social interaction opportunities. This underscores the imperative for comprehensive socialization programs. Additionally, integrating students into professional teams has been shown to foster positive interpersonal relationships significantly. Recommendations for enhancing care quality include personalizing living spaces, strengthening bonds between staff and residents, and enriching the nursing curriculum with advanced professional training.

Factors influencing baccalaureate nursing students' attitudes toward older adults: An integrative review

BACKGROUND

With a rapidly growing population of older adults in the U.S., nurses are needed to provide quality gerontological nursing care. However, few nursing students plan to specialize in gerontological nursing and many relate their lack of interest in gerontological nursing to negative pre-existing attitudes toward older adults.

PURPOSE

An integrative review was conducted to examine factors associated with positive attitudes toward older adults in baccalaureate nursing students.

METHODS

A systematic database search was performed to identify eligible articles published between January 2012 and February 2022. Data were extracted, displayed in matrix format, and synthesized into themes.

RESULTS

Two overarching themes were identified as having a positive impact on students' attitudes toward older adults: past rewarding experiences with older adults and gerontology-focused teaching strategies, particularly service-learning projects and simulation.

CONCLUSION

Nurse educators can improve students' attitudes toward older adults by incorporating service-learning and simulation activities into nursing curriculum.

Impact of interprofessional geriatric teamwork on students' perceptions of older persons and collaborative practice

Health professions programs lack sufficient exposure to geriatric education in curricula. The Seniors Assisting in Geriatric Education (SAGE) Program exposes interprofessional (IP) teams of health professions students to older adults. To determine the impact of an interprofessional geriatric educational experience on student perceptions of team collaboration and older adults. IP teams of three or four students (n = 662) representing eight disciplines from two institutions were paired with an older adult to promote person-centered care over three semesters. Students completed two online questionnaires (pre- and post-SAGE Program, ~10 min). 136 students completed both questionnaires. Three IP collaborative practice sub-competencies under the Roles & Responsibilities and Interprofessional Communication Core Competencies increased significantly from pre- to post-SAGE Program (p ≤ 0.002). Comparison of the means for attitudes toward geriatric patients revealed statistically significant improvement in one item, Compassion (p < .002). The SAGE Program had a positive impact on IP collaborative practice and attitudes toward older people in some, but not all, areas.

Educational effects of community service-learning involving older adults in nursing education: An integrative review

BACKGROUND

Community service-learning is a structured experiential learning approach in which students engage in service activities in response to identified community need(s). Service-learning programmes are developed to promote understanding of societal issues and facilitates critical learning for the learners, with emphasis on learning through reflection.

OBJECTIVES

To synthesize findings from published and grey literature related to the educational effects of community service-learning involving older adults in nursing education and evaluate the quality of existing service-learning programmes.

DESIGN

Integrative review following Whittemore and Knafl's framework to analyse and synthesize a broader range of evidence.

DATA SOURCES

Six databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC and ProQuest) were systematically searched from inception until 30 July 2021. Reference lists of relevant studies and reviews were also assessed for eligible studies. We also searched for grey literature and dissertations in ProQuest and Google Scholar.

REVIEW METHODS

The 5-step method was used: problem identification, literature search, data evaluation, analysis, and presentation. Included studies were appraised using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool checklist. Service-learning programmes were evaluated using the Service-Learning Quality Assessment Tool.

RESULTS

A total of 21 studies were included. Educational benefits of service-learning in the three domains of learning (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) were identified. Nine service-learning programmes achieved adequate quality and implementation of service-learning principles, while 12 exhibited emergent quality and implementation.

CONCLUSIONS

Service-learning provides various benefits in nursing education. Existing empirical studies do not always follow established service-learning principles, and the quality of evidence is considered low. Future studies should use more rigorous methodologies and improve the reporting of research.

Analysis of factors influencing the attitudes towards the elderly of nursing students based on empathy and end-of-life care: A cross-sectional study

Aim

This study aimed to explore the factors associated with attitudes towards the older adults among nursing students, to clarify the impact of empathy and end‐of‐life care on the attitude of the older adults, and to provide a basis for the follow‐up of education courses related to older adults care and the training of older adults care talents.

Design

A cross‐sectional study.

Methods

A cross‐sectional survey on nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards older adults was conducted from 24 December 2020–24 February 2021. The Chinese versions of the end‐of‐life Attitudes Scale, Jefferson Empathy Scale‐Nursing Version and Kogan Attitudes Scale for the Elderly were used for this cross‐sectional study. We used the purposive sampling method to conduct a questionnaire survey on nursing students at Heilongjiang Nursing College (n = 371, effective response rate: 64.52%).

Results

The average score of FATCOD‐B was 99.04 (7.71), and the score of C‐JSE‐HPS was 100.67 (12.90). The total average score of nursing students' attitudes towards older adults was 139.91 (15.79). The hierarchical regression analysis showed that education (β = −.125, p = .025) and personal experience (β = −.132, p = .008) correlated negatively with attitudes towards the older adults, while the end‐of‐life care (β = .140, p = .013) and empathy (β = .285, p < .001) correlated positively with attitudes towards the older adults.

Conclusions

Religion, end‐of‐life care and empathy were positively correlated with nursing students' attitudes towards older adults. It is necessary to set up end‐of‐life care, empathy and education related to the older adults, and combine a variety of training forms, increasing humanistic assessments and reducing the employment pressure on nursing students by relevant departments can improve their attitudes towards the older adults.

Daily life activities simulation: Improving nursing students' attitudes toward older patients

AIM

This study aims to evaluate the effects of daily life activities simulation on the attitudes of first-year nursing students toward older adults within the scope of geriatric nursing.

METHODS

The study was carried out using a pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design. First-year undergraduate students (N = 119) of a nursing faculty constituted the study sample. The students were divided into two groups as intervention and control groups. The intervention group performed the daily life activities simulation. Data were collected by using Kogan's Attitudes Towards old People Scale (KAOP) and Positive and Negative Ageism Scale (PNAS). SPSS Ver. 22.00 software was used for statistical analysis. Chi-square test, and t test were used for comparative statistics.

RESULTS

Most of the participants were female, and mean age was 20.96 ± 3.24. Intergroup comparison of the KAOP and PNAS scores reveals a statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores for the simulation group (p ˂ .05). The posttest KOAP and PNAS scores of the simulation and control groups were statistically significantly different (p ˂ .05).

CONCLUSION

Daily life activities simulation is an effective method to improve nursing students' positive attitudes toward older adults. Participant feedback from our study shows that the simulation increased empathy and awareness of geriatric nursing.

Canine Outreach Promoting Engagement: The Effect of Meaningful Activities on Students' Attitudes Toward Cognitively Impaired Older Adults

BACKGROUND

Animal-assisted activities (AAAs) show promise in providing emotional and social benefits to older adults and may be used as a tool to promote therapeutic communication between students and cognitively impaired older adults.

PURPOSE

The purpose was to develop a program incorporating AAAs to enhance social engagement of cognitively impaired older adults in a community respite program and in turn enhance student comfort when caring for this vulnerable population.

METHODS

The Dementia Attitudes Scale, a validated tool, was used to measure students' attitudes before and after AAA intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures analysis of variance.

RESULTS

Students were significantly more comfortable and demonstrated a gain in knowledge after AAAs were included in the community clinical experience.

CONCLUSIONS

Incorporating AAAs into student community/service-learning clinical experience improved communication between students and cognitively impaired older adults, improving students' attitudes when caring for this population.

Improving health care student attitudes toward older adults through educational interventions: A systematic review

Educational institutions should aim to positively influence the attitudes of future health care practitioners toward older patients to ensure the provision of quality patient care. This systematic review of the literature aims to determine the effectiveness of educational interventions designed to improve health care student behaviors and/or attitudes toward older people. The 29 studies included in this review utilized a variety of interventions, methods, and measurement tools. The most common type of educational intervention incorporated interaction with real patients. Few studies evaluated the impact of interventions on behavior; therefore, more observational studies are required. Overall interventions incorporating interactions with real patients who are independently living had a positive impact on student attitudes toward older adults. Clinically focused placements with patients who are ill may still have a place in the development of the patient-centered interview and assessment skills, along with improving confidence and competence, despite not having a favorable impact on attitudes.

Integration of Service Learning Into a Doctoral-Level Qualitative Research Methodology Course

This article provides an overview of the integration of a pilot service learning (SL) project in a doctoral-level qualitative research course. Faculty partnered with a nonprofit organization that prepares former foster youth for the challenges of adulthood. The project objectives were to (1) increase students' knowledge/skills in qualitative methods, research ethics, and cultural/social issues and (2) promote community collaboration. The outcomes demonstrate that the project was feasible, valuable, and aligned with the principles of SL.