A unique course at Western is training the next generation of nurses not just in practical medical skills, but how to bring more empathy and a “person-centred” approach to their patients.
Nursing Care for Older Adults is a new, mandatory class for second-year nursing students, where they take a deeper dive into the needs of older patients while challenging stereotypes. Students also complete a clinical placement in a long-term care setting.
“I want students to consider how they can really impact the care of their clients using compassion and empathy,” said nursing professor David Reid, who teaches the class.
“They can be change agents if they understand their role as leaders within health care.” – Nursing professor David Reid
With an aging population and health-care needs growing, Western’s Arthur Labatt School of Nursing opted to make a dedicated course to cover caring for older adults. It includes skills, strategies and case studies to help students understand the realities and needs of older patients, everything from geriatric syndromes to the impact of social determinants of health to end-of-life care.
“This is a challenging and rewarding area. There is a huge need; we are all aging. Improvements are needed in this field of health care. I’d like to have more students consider this as an area of practice,” Reid said.
Frontline nursing realities
It also makes students more aware of the realities they’ll face on the frontlines, including the struggle for adequate time and resources to meet the needs they’re seeing.
“That was challenging for me,” said Blair Reid (no relation to her professor), a second-year nursing student who worked as a personal support worker last summer before beginning the course.
“But it’s reflective of the broader challenges. Everyone is in the same boat. The course helped me transition my thinking, to maximize the relationship-building in the time I have to care for my resident.”
She found herself reflecting on her experiences in long-term care in class, and applying new lessons in her placement this fall.
“This real-life experience is so important. As much as you can read the books and learn all the strategies, it’s very different when you’re in the health-care environment – there are a lot of factors,” Reid said.
“There’s a huge benefit to direct application.”
The in-class learnings helped students cement knowledge gained on the job, and vice versa.
“Reflecting on the course content we’ve discussed helps us put it into action,” said John Kim, a second-year nursing student who also works as a clinical extern in a hospital inpatient unit, a position created for nursing students to gain skills on the job.
“When we take in the lectures on empathy, it helps us think about how older adults deserve the same care and human dignity as anyone else.”
Busting stigma
The Nursing Care for Older Adults course is also helping to reframe the idea – and stereotypes – of aging.
Reid, a registered nurse and veteran nursing professor, said the class offers a “deeper dive” into issues that are relevant when caring for older adults. That includes conditions and syndromes that are more common as a person ages, such as the risk for falls, dementia and other conditions.
But he also pushes students to think deeply about what it means to age. The first assignment is a reflective piece, intended to help cultivate critical reflection skills and highlight biases.
“Having to think about older adults in terms of people I know and respect and love, that was a real perspective shift,” said Blair Reid, the student.
Kim said he believes a course specializing in older adult care should be a requirement in all nursing schools, especially since it’s a group that accounts for nearly half of Canadian health-care spending.
“Older adults require a lot more health care than other groups. It’s crucial for us to be informed about all of these concepts around their care.”
Empathy and compassion drive change
Reid, who’s worked in hospital acute care, community settings, long-term care and in global health over the course of his career, knows his students need a broad set of skills to provide care to older adults.
“It requires multi-tasking, problem solving, critical thinking, critical judgment.”
Equipping the next generation of nurses to compassionately care for their oldest patients can help drive wider changes.
“There are huge gains to be made in terms of improving health care overall and, broadly speaking, how the health-care system cares for older adults,” Reid said.
“We have to remember that empathy and compassion piece. I see that in my class, interacting with students, and it certainly gives me a lot of hope. I’m excited to see what they will accomplish when they finish the program and launch their careers.”
