Challenges in education; Training nurses in gerontology

There has been an acute shortage of nurses for years but one of the greatest shortages has been in the area of training nurses to care for the elderly. Let me say we know that in the past the poorest quality of nursing care has been to the older person. This was partly because we did not have a body of knowledge to guide the nurse in the care of the older person. It's only been in the past 20 years that knowledge has become available in the field of gerontology. The Center for the Study of aging and human development here at Duke has taken leadership in developing this knowledge. And now we're faced with the problem of making this knowledge available to nurses in order that they can give good care to patients. The older age group the speaker is Dr. Virginia stone. In a moment she talks about a new program of teaching nurses for Jeron to logical care. Challenges in education presented by Duke University.

Here with today's feature is Charles Bronson. In a recent survey of nursing schools it was found that 85 percent of them did not include your into logical nursing in their curriculum. Most student nurses are getting a very limited background and the care of the older person. But at Duke University a master's degree in gerontological nursing is offered. Dr. Virginia stone director of graduate studies and a professor at the School of Nursing has been developing the program. I think any nurse who completes any educational program in nursing has a good understanding of the basic principles of nursing care. But she may not necessarily have a specialized education in the care of the aged. In nursing the baccalaureate education poor pay as the generalist in nursing the specialist

in nursing is prepared at the Master's level. Special courses are required in the master's program. This student first takes courses in dealing with this psychology of age in the sociology of aging. Some of the physiological changes of aging three or four courses and then she has a course in German to logical nursing. But one of the features of of our program of the clinical resources we have in the community by the end of vegetable to test theories in relation to the care of the older person. We have the Duke Medical Center the veterans hospital a number of nursing homes in the area plus the state mental hospital. John stead studies at the Center for aging and Human Development at you are being used to improve nursing care for the elderly. Again here is Dr. Stoll.

I think it takes a very special kind of nurse to get satisfaction from nursing. The older a person she has to be one who is patient. Because of the difference in timing she has to be one who is satisfied at seeing slow progress rather than rapid progress. It's very easy to give an individual a hypodermic and see pain relieved. The nurse gets her satisfaction immediately from this. But to help a person who is mentally confused to the stage where the confusion is now no longer exist. It may take several months so it takes a different kinds of individuals to get there says fashion but the most wonderful thing is there is no aged person who is more pleased in having someone interested in him than the older person.

Teaching nurses for Jurand alogical care should be developed at other schools across the nation. Perhaps this new program at Duke can serve as a model. This is Charles Brown's role with challenges in education from Duke University. This program was distributed by the national educational radio network.