Geriatric class in school?????????

[Soon-to-be-NurseJess]

I am two weeks away from finishing my ADN :dance: and each of my classmates was given a evaluation sheet for the entire program. I went on a page-long rampage on the back of mine about how I feel we need a geriatrics class in our curriculum. Well, not so much a rampage, but I did thoroughly explain my point. When asked by my classmates why I had written so much in the 'Other comments or suggestions' category, I explained. No one else seemed to share the same thoughts .

I feel that since 50% of hospital care and 80% home care is directed at the frail elderly (not all the elderly, the smaller subgroup of the frail elderly) it is a very important area of study for nursing. I mean, that is a massive amount of our care directed at a very small portion of the population. Not only that, but the elderly population is living longer, thus making up more of the population. It is the fastest growing in the USA, and, of course, the sickest. They have special needs and considerations due to their age and the fact that they usually have an atypical presentation of common diseases and the fact that they almost always have multiple other chronic illnesses and ridiculous amounts of medications. Our Med/Surg textbook only briefly covers the elderly population with each body system, and our instructors don't even mention what little bit there is in the book. I am very interested in long term care at some point in my nursing career, but I don't feel I've received nearly enough information about it. I work in LTC now as a CNA and love to see the smiles I put on all their beautiful faces and I know how much the elderly need caring, knowledgeable nurses.

I do plan to further my education and get my BSN, and I'm gonna search for one with a geriatrics program, but surely there are ADN nursing programs that include a geriatrics class, and I would love to hear about them. If anyone has any ideas about how to further advance my idea with the nursing faculty at my college, that would be appreciated too.

WOW...that was a lot more than I planned to type...whew!