Connecting Nursing Students and Older Adults: An Intergenerational Service-Learning Experience

Student nurses' views of participating in an intergenerational café with older people

BACKGROUND

Within the context of global ageing, older people will require health care during times in their later lives. As most nurses will care for older people across a variety of care settings, it is crucial that older people and nurses can work together in partnership. In preparation for this, it is important to develop intergenerational learning innovations for student nurses and older people. An online intergenerational discussion café was developed to provide an opportunity for older people and student nurses to meet and get to know each other.

OBJECTIVES

1) Evaluate the effectiveness of an intergenerational discussion café as a way of facilitating intergenerational learning, 2) Elicit participants' views on whether intergenerational learning had occurred.

DESIGN

Ethically approved survey research.

SETTINGS

Tertiary education institution.

PARTICIPANTS

Third year student nurses (n = 50) across three BSc Nursing pre-registration degree programmes enrolled on a shared community care module.

METHODS

Post-café, student nurses were invited via email to voluntarily participate in the research and to complete an anonymous online survey. Questionnaire return implied consent. Fifty student nurses (n = 50) participated in the post café survey. Descriptive statistical analysis of Likert scale quantitative data and thematic analysis of open-ended questions was undertaken.

RESULTS

Participants reported that the intergenerational cafés were well organised, worked well and strongly agreed that the cafés were helpful in facilitating student nurses and older people to connect socially and share views. Results also showed that participants felt they got to know a lot about older people and that they were in many ways quite similar to older people.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides valuable information on the use of intergenerational cafés as a means of facilitating intergenerational learning. Findings indicate that it was a positive learning experience for participants.

Facilitating intergenerational learning between older people and student nurses: An integrative review

AIM

To examine the literature on intergenerational learning between older people and student nurses.

BACKGROUND

Intergenerational activities offer opportunities for intergenerational learning and help reduce ageism. There are several older person/school children intergenerational learning initiatives. However, there is less known about how intergenerational learning occurs in nurse education programmes outside of service provision.

METHODS

Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) integrative review framework was used to guide the review process. Population, intervention, context and outcome (PICO) was used to develop the review question, search strategy and inclusion/exclusion criteria. Database (CINAHL, Cochrane library, Medline, PubMed, Scopus and PsychInfo) searches and hand searching occurred from 2012 to 2023. Screening, appraisal and data extraction was undertaken according to Prisma guidelines.

RESULTS

Nine papers were included (North American (n = 5), Canadian (n = 1) Chinese (n = 2), Taiwanese (n = 1)). Mixed methods designs were included. Four themes were identified: 1) Seeing beyond first glance; 2) Connecting and getting to know each other; 3) Learning together; and 4) Challenges for intergenerational learning.

CONCLUSION

This review demonstrates the relevance of intergenerational learning in nurse education and highlights the importance of embedding initiatives which will promote and support mutual learning. Innovative intergenerational initiatives enable students to explore their underlying attitudes and views in a way that they may not be able to in the more traditional service and care giving learning situations.

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.