Are Changing Demographics Influencing the
Trend of Nursing Curricula in Massachusetts BSN
Programs?
by Kristen Morris, SN; Carol Eliadi, APRN, EdD,
JD
ABSTRACT
The researcher, a baccalaureate nursing student, was interested
to know why, with the rapidly growing population of older
Americans, there was not a stand alone course related to the
care of the geriatric patient offered within her SON
curriculum. What were the barriers that failed to allow a
stand-alone course for geriatrics? Stand-alone courses are
offered for pediatrics and psychiatric care, but not for the
care of the geriatric patient. The researcher wanted to know if
this situation was consistent with other baccalaureate nursing
programs within Massachusetts and with baccalaureate nursing
programs nationally. The researcher believed that nurses must
be adequately prepared to care for the rapidly growing shifting
demographics related to the older population and was interested
to see how Massachusetts’ baccalaureate nursing programs
compared to the other baccalaureate nursing programs nationally
in offering geriatric content and why discreet geriatric
courses may not be offered.
The population of older Americans ≥65) is increasing
dramatically and is estimated to grow by 75% from 2010 to 2030.
This would be an increase of 39.4 million Americans in 2010 to
69 million Americans in 2030. To understand how rapidly the
older American population is expected to grow, the future
estimated growth should be compared to the current growth of
the older American population. Currently, the growth of the
older American population is estimated to increase from 33.5
million in 1995 to 39.4 million in 2010, a growth of 17%. This
current growth is only 5.9 million Americans in 15 years
compared to the future growth of 29.6 million Americans in 20
years. (Administration on Aging, 2004)
The rapidly increasing older American population indicates that
nurses will have to care for older Americans on a more frequent
basis and will have to be adequately prepared to care for this
growing population. The need for a nurse workforce prepared to
care for a growing proportion of older, potentially sicker
patients poses enormous challenge to nursing education. Nurses
will need enhanced skills to meet the growing healthcare
demands of older patients (Rosenfeld et al., 2005). The purpose
of this descriptive, quantitative study was to identify the
gerontological curricula content within Massachusetts
baccalaureate nursing programs, describe how curricula trends
in Massachusetts vary in relation to the national curricula
trends identified by Gilje, Lacey and Moore (2007) and identify
the barriers, if any, to reaching the standards set by the
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in Older
Adults: Recommended Baccalaureate competencies and Curricular
Guidelines for Geriatric Nursing Care.
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
The computerized databases used to locate relevant literature
were the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health
Literature, CINAHL, and PUBMED after the year 2002 with search
restrictions of full text and English. The keywords used were
nursing, geriatrics, gerontology, education, studies and
curriculum used in a variety of combinations. There was a vast
amount of information discussing the importance of gerontology
within a curriculum, but limited studies have been conducted to
determine the specific gerontology content of baccalaureate
nursing school curriculum. After reviewing the literature, the
researcher determined that there have been four major studies
conducted to identify curriculum trends within baccalaureate
nursing programs. One study, conducted in 1997, was used as a
baseline study for studies conducted thereafter and was
included in the following literature review. CONT'D
by Kristen Morris, SN; Carol Eliadi, APRN, EdD, JD
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