After completing the course, you’ll be able to:

1. Define the older adult population, recognizing stereotypes applied to this population
2. Recognize the complexity of factors that influence the lives of older adults–including health maintenance, available care during illness or disability, and current health care financing and services–and the significance of environmental factors that include geographic location and features of the individual’s community and home
3. Describe sociologic, economic, and educational trends among older adults
4. Recognize current demographic trends among older adults in the United States, identifying present and predictive trends
5. Discuss the history of gerontologic nursing
6. Describe the current status of gerontologic nursing
7. Identify the importance of the nursing process, including nursing diagnosis
8. Recognize several conceptual or theoretic frameworks for nursing
9. Describe the results of the leadership efforts of the American Nurses’ Association in defining standards for gerontologic nursing, initiating and maintaining nursing certification, and defining the nature and scope of nursing
10. Recognize the contributions of the teaching nursing homes
11. Identify what is known about the causes of aging
12. Recognize that overlap and duplication exist among the aging theories that have been reported to date
13. Discuss selected biologic and psychosocial theories about aging
14. Understand that application of theories about aging can enhance the nursing care of older adults
15. Describe social role changes experienced by older adults in the United States
16. Describe changing family roles experienced by older adults in the United States
17. Discuss the patterns of late life marriages
18. Examine the positive and negative consequences of retirement for older adults
19. Discuss physiological age related changes that affect the pharmacologic dynamics of the older person
20. Identify signs and symptoms of adverse drug reactions common in older adults
21. Recognize high risk drugs and their potential for harm and benefit to older adults
22. Identify drug drug interactions in older adults
23. Recognize the risks and benefits of the use of over the counter (OTC) drugs in older adults
24. Discuss methods to increase older adults’ ability to understand and to follow medication prescriptions.
25. Describe sexuality as an integral component of the older adult’s personality
26. Identify age related changes and health deviations that affect sexual function of older adults
27. Describe demographic, physiologic, and social factors that affect the sexual function of older adults
28. Discuss older adults’ needs for closeness, touch, warmth, and sharing
29. Identify age related changes in vision, hearing, smell, and taste
30. Assess the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch of the older adult
31. Recognize psychologic and sociocultural factors that interact with sensory functioning
32. Understand the causes of sensory impairment in older people
33. Develop a plan of nursing care for an older person with sensory impairment
34. Provide appropriate nursing interventions for older adults with sensory impairment
35. Identify age related changes in the integument and in the oral mucous membranes
36. Assess the older adult’s integument and oral mucous membranes
37. Recognize risk factors that lead to impaired skin integrity and alterations in oral mucous membranes
38. Describe the causes of integumentary impairment, and oral mucous membrane impairment in older adults
39. Develop a plan of nursing care for an older adult with integumentary impairment or with alterations in oral mucous membranes
40. Implement appropriate nursing interventions for older adults with integumentary impairment and with alterations in oral mucous membranes
41. Evaluate the effectiveness of nursing interventions carried out to resolve integumentary and oral mucous membrane problems
42. Discuss age related changes in the endocrine system
43. Recognize the prevalence of diabetes in the older adult population
44. Describe the nursing care of the older diabetic patient
45. Discuss the vulnerability of an older adult to disorders of temperature regulation
46. Recognize signs and symptoms of hypothermia and hyperthermia in an older adult.
47. Identify age related changes and environmental factors that increase susceptibility to infection in the older adult
48. Describe the nursing care of the older person with an infection
49. Identify age related physiologic changes of the cardiovascular and peripheral vascular system
50. Identify and describe the common pathophysiologic changes that affect the cardiovascular system of the older adult
51. Assess the cardiovascular functioning of older adults
52. Recognize the psychosocial and cultural factors that influence the nursing management of older adults with cardiovascular problems
53. Develop a plan of care for an older adult with cardiovascular impairment
54. Provide appropriate nursing interventions for older adults with cardiovascular impairment
55. Explain the normal structure and function of the respiratory tract
56. Identify age related physiologic changes of the respiratory system
57. Identify and describe the common pathophysiologic changes that affect the respiratory system of older adults
58. Assess the respiratory functioning of older adults
59. Recognize the psychosocial and environmental factors that influence the nursing management of older adults with respiratory problems
60. Develop nursing diagnoses and a plan of care for an older person with respiratory impairment
61. Provide appropriate nursing interventions and evaluations for older adults with respiratory impairment
62. Define mobility
63. Understand the anatomy and the physiology of the musculoskeletal system
64. Know the physical and psychosocial aspects of mobility in the older adult
65. Recognize normal age related changes and common health deviations in the musculoskeletal system that affects mobility of the older adult
66. Specify common psychosocial problems in relation to health deviations in mobility
67. Assess functional mobility of the older adult
68. Use the nursing process in determining the care of people with problems in mobility
69. Develop methods for promoting healthy mobility throughout the adult life span
70. Identify and describe the types and causes of urinary incontinence experienced by older adults
71. Describe and/or perform history taking, and physical and functional assessments for patients with urinary incontinence
72. Describe urodynamic assessment
73. Recognize the psychosocial consequences of urinary incontinence for older adults and their families
74. Identify and describe behavioral therapies for urinary incontinence
75. Provide appropriate nursing interventions, patient education, and advocacy for older adults with urinary incontinence
76. Explain the normal structure and function of the gastrointestinal (GI) system and identify age related changes that influence bowel elimination
77. Recognize the significance and prevalence of constipation in older adults
78. Identify the contributing factors that cause constipation
79. Assess patients for actual or potential constipation
80. Develop a plan of care to manage constipation
81. Discuss appropriate nursing interventions for patients with constipation
82. Promote normal bowel elimination for older adults
83. Evaluate the effectiveness of a plan of care for constipation
84. Recognize the physiologic, psychosocial, and environmental factors that influence the maintenance of the nutritional status of the older adult
85. Discuss drug nutrient interactions and their effect on older adults
86. Discuss pathologic conditions that affect the nutritional status of the older adult
87. Describe the components of nutritional assessment for the older adult
88. Develop a plan of care for the older adult with an alteration in nutrition
89. Design appropriate nursing interventions for older adults with alterations in nutrition
90. Describe strategies for promoting optimum nutrition in the older adult.
91. Identify the stages of normal sleep
92. Understand how aging influences sleep patterns.
93. Describe sleep disorders that occur as people age
94. Recognize what promotes or inhibits sleep in older adults
95. Assess sleep patterns of older adults
96. Develop a plan of care for an older adult experiencing a sleep pattern disturbance
97. Identify appropriate nursing interventions for older adults with sleep pattern disturbance
98. Promote healthy adaptation of older adults to changes in the sleep cycle caused by aging.
99. Discuss three mental disorders that are frequently experienced by older adults and the relationship between increasing age and the prevalence of these disorders
100. Differentiate between two cognitive disorders, dementia and delirium, and specify their distinguishing features
101. Differentiate between cognitive disorders and depression, a mood disorder
102. Describe the effects of cognitive disorders and depression on the older individual.
103. Discuss the role of the caregiver of the cognitively impaired and/or depressed older person
104. Discuss the assessment process as it applies to cognitive impairment and the use of instruments to assist in diagnosing the nursing needs of the cognitively impaired or depressed person
105. Implement nursing interventions that meet the special needs of cognitively older adults
106. Discuss the concept of safety as it applies to the older adult
107. Discuss the incidence of injury in the older population
108. Recognize the older adult who is at risk for falling
109. Discuss interventions to diminish the risk of falling for older adults
110. Identify the susceptibility of the older adult to sustaining an injury as a result of a traffic accident and/or burns
111. Recognize signs and symptoms of elder abuse
112. Discuss the use of restraints with older patients
113. Understand the problem of cancer, its myths, and its biases as they related to the older adult
114. Discuss biologic aspects of aging as they relate to cancer incidence, morbidity, and mortality
115. Recognize major issues (e.g., age, gender, extent of disease, and comorbidity) that may influence decisions concerning eligibility for screening, extent of diagnostic workup, treatment, and treatment aggression for the older adult experiencing cancer
116. Address (1) the major therapeutic modalities employed in cancer treatment; (2) the major cancers affecting the older adult; and (3) the nurse’s role in caring for the older adult experiencing cancer
117. Identify patterns of care for the older adult, family, and community experiencing cancer
118. Project future goals for approaches to cancer prevention, control, treatment, and research in the older adult
119. Define the concepts of loss, bereavement, and grief
120. Describe the relevance of these concepts (loss, bereavement, and grief) to the older population
121. Describe the phases of bereavement, including the physical, psychologic, social, and spiritual manifestations of each
122. Describe the emotional responses to dying, using a dynamic model of coping responses
123. Describe nursing roles related to care of the dying older person and the person’s family in various care settings
124. Describe the care of a person experiencing spiritual distress in relation to death
125. Apply the nursing process to the care of the bereaved and the care of the dying person
126. Discuss the legal aspects of planning that will help older adult patients manage their affairs, and plan for their potential inability to manage their own affairs
127. Identify the public benefit programs that may assist the older adult
128. Describe the main regulations governing nursing homes
129. Compare and contrast four current approaches to studying and applying bioethics: principle-based ethics, virtue theory, communitarianism, and caring
130. Critique age-based rationing as a means to achieve intergenerational justice
131. Counsel frail older adults who seek assistance in making end-of-life treatment decisions
132. Describe the advocacy responsibilities and related competencies of gerontologic nurses
133. Identify strategies to prevent and resolve ethical conflict
134. Use a process of ethical decision making to resolve moral distress and dilemmas
135. Appreciate the importance of stating ideas and contributing suggestions in public policy discussions to advance professional nursing
136. Contribute to the refinement of nursing language, including nursing diagnoses that will improve the understanding of nursing and encourage clear and frequent communication
137. Emulate models of care that enable improved practice, research, and education to be understood and applied in patient care
138. Prepare for and be prepared to cope with the adjustment that are anticipated to be imposed in the twenty-first century