Overcoming the Dual Stigma of Mental Illness and Aging: Preparing New Nurses to Care for the Mental Health Needs of Older Adults
| Autor: | G. Sofia Martinez, Ivy Benjenk, Jie Chen, Aitalohi Amaize, Portia Buchongo |
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| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Aging Social Stigma education Psychological intervention Gerontological nursing Stigma (botany) Psychiatric Nursing Article Interviews as Topic Geriatric Nursing Nursing Health care medicine Humans Nurse education Curriculum Qualitative Research Aged business.industry Mental Disorders Education Nursing Baccalaureate Mental illness medicine.disease Mental health United States Psychiatry and Mental health Female Students Nursing Geriatrics and Gerontology Psychology business |
| Zdroj: | Am J Geriatr Psychiatry |
| ISSN: | 1064-7481 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jagp.2018.12.028 |
| Popis: | OBJECTIVES: Registered nurses are uniquely positioned to fill shortages in the geropsychiatric healthcare workforce. With training, nurses can coordinate both mental and physical health care and deliver mental health interventions. Our objective was to determine how nursing educators are preparing students to care for the mental health needs of older adults and explore the challenges that they face in this effort. DESIGN: A qualitative study using semi-structured, in-depth interviews. SETTING: Participants were recruited from schools of nursing in the Northeast region of the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Undergraduate psychiatric nursing instructors and professors. MEASUREMENTS: Semi-structured interviews focused on challenges and strategies related to preparing nursing students to meet the mental health needs of older patients. All interviews were conducted by registered nurses, audio recorded, transcribed, and thematically coded by two members of the research team using NVivo. RESULTS: Fourteen interviews were conducted. An overarching theme of bias towards geropsychiatric care was identified as a challenge for educators. Educators reported that nursing students carry biases towards patients with mental illness and older patients. Nursing students indicated negative perceptions of the psychiatric and geriatric nursing specialties. Most nursing students plan to work in non-psychiatric settings and do not consider mental health as a priority for their patients. To overcome these challenges, educators suggested a variety of strategies that fall into the themes of exposure and integration. In order to prepare new nurses to care for the mental health needs of older patients, nursing schools should expose nursing students to older adults in a variety of settings and integrate mental health topics and training throughout the undergraduate nursing curriculum. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing schools should evaluate their curricula to ensure that mental health content is prioritized and sufficiently integrated with physical health topics. An increased focus on geropsychiatric and integrated mental health content should be supported by nursing programs and state boards of nursing. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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