Professor: Department
Semester: Fall, Spring
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: NUR 203, NFS 207, PSY 232, and MIC 201.

Catalog Description: Foundational concepts of professional nursing practice emphasizing levels of prevention and nursing care focusing on the older adult in wellness and illness.

This course is designed to teach students foundational concepts of professional nursing emphasizing levels of prevention and nursing care focusing on the older adult client in wellness and illness. The student will discuss the roles of the nurse in caring for older adults. Emphasis of this gerontology course is to address normal versus abnormal age-related changes in the older adult. The future professional nurse can apply this knowledge to provide optimal nursing care to the older adult.

This course is taught utilizing the lecture format, case studies, and group activities. Students must demonstrate their theoretical knowledge of the content via the course exams and quizzes.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

1. Examine your own beliefs, attitudes and stereotypes of older adults.
2. Recognize elder abuse.
3. Formulate nursing diagnoses, plan interventions, and evaluate client outcomes.
4. Utilize evidence-based nursing research in caring for older adults.
5. Recognize legal, ethical, and cultural influences that affect nursing care of the older adult.

This course consists of weekly three hour lectures and group discussions. There are periodic quizzes and exams throughout the course. This course is usually taken concurrently with NUR 234, a practicum involving older adults.

The topics covered in the course include:

• Principles of Gerontology
• Theories of Aging
• Cultural Variations
• Elder Abuse
• Caregiving
• Delirium, Depression, and Dementia
• Physical Age-Related Changes
• Assessment Tools
• Health and Wellness in Chronic Cardiac and Respiratory Diseases

This course is taught by multiple instructors, please refer to the URI Course Schedule.

This is a required nursing course that gives the nursing student the opportunity to explore the issues and nursing care of the older adult. This foundational course will allow you to acquire a solid theoretical base in which to examine current nursing practice from an evidence-based perspective. The information learned in this course will allow the nursing student to deliver optimal nursing care to the older adult.

• Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing
• Consult RN