Geriatrics class in nursing program?????

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I am two weeks away from finishing my ADN 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 :o .

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!:nurse:

I also posted this under the LTC forum but I think this is a better place for it...

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Congrats to you on your upcoming graduation !

I too am a student nurse, ADN as well as CNA and ER tech. Our school probably covers at least one-third of all lecture time oriented toward the elderly. As well, our first clinical rotations are in LTCs where we deal almost exclusively with our older brethren.

The instructors have made it quite clear for many of the reasons you mentioned above, that we need to be prepared and educated to deal with this ever-growing population.

Bottom line, I agree with your "rampage". We students will be the front-line of healthcare providers for the elderly. And we better darned well be prepared :icon_roll

ps I think your arguement speaks for itself. If your school cannot recognize the "elephant in the room", then they simply have their eyes closed to the reality of the situation, yes ?

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Specializes in Infection Preventionist/ Occ Health.

I am in a BSN program, and we have a gerontological nursing class as a requirement for graduation. From what I understand, they added the course to our curriculum because of an AACN requirement or something. I am finding it very helpful because we cover a lot of topics that get left out of other courses, like spirituality, LTC, home care, telemedicine, elder abuse, etc.

Good luck to you and kudos for taking the initiative to change things in your program. I'm sure the students who come after you will appreciate your efforts :)

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Specializes in Ortho/Neuro.

We also have a Geriatric portion of the program. We spend half the semester (about 8 weeks) specifically on geriatrics and our other rotations always talk about special considerations with the geriatric population. I think it is so important as well. Congratulations on voicing your opinion!:yelclap:

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

My rationale is that we learn about maternity, pediatric kinds of nursing, that cater to special populations, so why not geriatric.

My program offered a geriatrics class, and it was a good one. Not sure if this current program offers one or not, i haven't gotten to the point of needing to look for it.

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I'm in an LPN Program and we have had a Geriatrics class this first semester. I'm really surprised that your curriculum did not include Geriatrics classes. :confused: Good luck to you.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

Good for you for voicing your opinion!

I agree with you, geriatrics is VERY important in nursing and healthcare in general. As our life expectancies continue to increase, there will be more and more geriatric age patients. Hopefully, the tide will turn and we will have more of this topic in our nursing programs.

Congratulations on your upcoming graduation!!!! :balloons:

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WAY TO GO ! Geriatrics is my passion also. The geriatric feild has come so far in the past twenty or so years. Attitude like yours will change the attitude of others:p

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Thanks for your replies you all. I am glad to hear that there are programs that do offer it. I, unfortunately, did not have the knowledge or insight to look that in depth in the programs when I researched which college in the area I would attend. I'm not sure if any of the other community colleges in this area include a gerontology program either, but all of the hospitals I am applying to for Acute Care for the Elderly have mandatory courses about elder care and meds for the elderly before you begin work on those units.:nurse: Thanks again...glad to know others appreciate the importance of this for our future

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Thanks for your replies you all. I am glad to hear that there are programs that do offer it. I, unfortunately, did not have the knowledge or insight to look that in depth in the programs when I researched which college in the area I would attend. I'm not sure if any of the other community colleges in this area include a gerontology program either, but all of the hospitals I am applying to for Acute Care for the Elderly have mandatory courses about elder care and meds for the elderly before you begin work on those units.:nurse: Thanks again...glad to know others appreciate the importance of this for our future

Take a look at http://www.ccgg.org/home/programsbody.htm

Look at the bottom where Stanford is, they have some free training module. Also in the beginning, American River which is a Calif community college offers tons of 100% online gerontology classes and they are supposed to be good.

-Dan

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