Gerontological Skills Research Articles

Professional and Personal Factors Associated with Gerontological Practice: Implications for Training and Education

Professional practice with older adults is performed in a variety of settings and across a broad range of areas. Planning for care throughout the end of life represents an increasingly important aspect of work with older adults as a result of the nation's aging demographic and concomitant health care needs. Community-based geriatric case managers represent a growing cadre of professionals encountering frail older adults with future care needs that can be anticipated in advance; however, little is known regarding specific professional and personal factors associated with greater practice in this area. This article presents the findings from a study of 148 community-based case managers' advance care planning practices, conducted in the Southeastern United States. Correlational analyses revealed specific gerontological skills, educational activities, and personal experiences in advance care planning that was highly correlated with practice. Implications for training are discussed.

Evaluating the Outcomes of Gerontological Curriculum Enrichment

This study describes a multi-method approach to evaluating a gerontological social work curriculum enrichment initiative funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation. The project involved all required first year core courses in the BA and MSW curricula. Data were collected from students at three geographically dispersed academic centers of a School of Social Work at a major Midwestern state university. Evaluation instruments included quantitative pre-and post-tests to assess change in undergraduate and graduate students' gerontological attitudes, knowledge, and skills, qualitative and quantitative pre-and post-tests to evaluate an intergenerational service-learning option, and an open-ended question to assess the gerontological content students had been exposed to in required core courses. Results for all students showed strong positive change in general attitudes toward elders, gerontological knowledge, and gerontological skills. There was only marginal support, however, for increased willingness to work with elders. Results for service-learning students revealed positive reactions to the service-learning experience and a significant increase in gerontological knowledge.

Nursing Student Attitudes After an Experience with Independent Elderly

This study examines attitudes toward the elderly held by 74 second year associate degree nursing students before and after spending one hour per week for a semester with an elderly person living independently at home. Overall attitudes improved significantly, with the best predictor being the course grade in nursing fundamentals. Strategies to improve attitudes toward older persons might well exploer ways to empower nurses by increasing their repertoire of gerontological skills.

CONTINUING EDUCATION NEEDS IN GERIATRICS/ GERONTOLOGY: SPECIFYING OCCUPATIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES OF SERVICE PROFESSIONALS

An analysis was made of gerontological continuing education (CE) needs of a systematic sample of health care professionals providing services to the aged in New York State (U.S.). Professionals with previous exposure to gerontological CE programs were found to have higher need levels than those without such experi‐ence. Those with less than 1 year and those with 5 to 9 years of work experience with, the aged appear significantly less interested in acquiring new gerontological skills and knowledge than those with either limited (2‐4 years) or extensive (> 10 years) experience. This nonlinear need pattern is established for all care providers, regardless of educational background. Interest in the CE topics listed is higher among nurses, social workers, and allied health professionals than among M.D.s and Ph.D.s. Clearly, professionals who have extensive daily contacts with the aged express the highest need for CE in gerontology. They appreciate multiple didactic formats and formal credit for CE attendance. Through the detailed analysis of CE needs of health care professionals dealing with the elderly, a clearer picture of how to serve them emerged. Combining future marketing efforts with applied social research goals in this area is highly recommended.

ENTREPRENEURIAL GERONTOLOGY: CREATIVE MARKETING OF GERONTOLOGICAL SKILLS

In order to operate successfully in today's work force, gerontologists need to learn, and to utilize, marketing of their gerontological skills. Entrepreneurial gerontology focuses on creative marketing for the individual gerontologist who wants to create gerontological positions within new or existing organizations and on the gerontologist who seeks to develop a gerontology‐related business. Essential are academic gerontologists who instill and promote within their students, their professional colleagues, older persons, and, indeed, within themselves, the entrepreneurial spirit, the innovative approach.