Hartford

Project Description

Mennonite College of Nursing has earned the reputation of being a key player in innovative responses to changes in nursing education and health care. The current strategic plan for the College includes and identifies a commitment to the pursuit of excellence in undergraduate geriatric nursing education to improve nursing care delivery to older adults and families. The Hartford grant allows the College to move ahead in developing a curriculum that is clearly infused with geriatric content and activities across core nursing courses within the program. This grant assists the College in bringing students and faculty to the forefront in teaching, learning and sharing best practice care for the older adult.

Ongoing grant activities include:

• Teaching and Learning: development of Web-based curricular modules that challenge students to apply knowledge of best practice content learned on-line and in the classroom setting; generating use of standardized tools to improve clinical decision-making in working with older adults; creating opportunities designed to broaden students perspectives in caring for older adults; increasing excitement and enthusiasm in caring for older adults
• Sharing: disseminating curricular modules to other schools of nursing in order to influence care of the older adult.

*Geriatric Nursing Program Initiatives are based on:

• AACN/Hartford Baccalaureate Geriatric Competencies
• Hartford Best Practices for Care of the Older Adult

Project Objectives

1. Extend current boundaries of geriatric course content and experiential activities within curriculum.
2. Generate use of standardized tools to improve clinical decision-making and care relative to older adults.
3. Develop multidisciplinary curricular options that provide focused study in care of the older adult.
4. Create opportunities for increasing student interest and enthusiasm in caring for the older adult.
5. Disseminate interactive curricular modules to other schools of nursing in order to influence nursing care for the older adult.

Curricular Initiatives

• Interactive Web-based learning modules incorporating geriatric Best Practice curricular content and standardized geriatric assessment tools throughout all core nursing courses;
• Focused geriatric clinical experiences with opportunities to analyze complex care needs of the older adult in the acute and long-term care practice settings;
• Student award recognition for geriatric nursing expertise;
• Active student participation;
• New multidisciplinary elective options for students to select a didactic non-nursing geriatric course for academic credit and degree completion.

Click here to view The Modules