One of the greatest challenge that the world´s societies are confronted with is the growing ratio of aged to total population. Aging population has multiple impacts on individual, and family lives and on the society as a whole. With aging, man experiences more health problems together with many social and psychological problems that are unique to an old age and functional to cultural variations. It should be an cooperative venture among individuals, families, professionals and society as a whole to help alleviate the problems of aged in each society.
Nurses meet aged more frequently in recent years in their practice settings: Good gerontological nursing care should take account these multiple aspects of aging. Education of nursing student in gerontological nursing will not only enhance the quality of the care of the aged, but also is the most important part contributing for the development of the field of gerontology.
Currently gerontological nursing is included in undergraduate nursing curricula in all 16 baccalaureate nursing programs that were surveyed. Six schools of nursing have established separate subject on gerontological nursing. For the rest of schools, gerontological nursing content are integrated into traditional nursing subjects in various degrees.
The result of our survey and literature review as the background, we propose that gerontological nursing curriculum integrated in undergraduate nursing curricular in baccalaureate schools of nursing in Korea. The proposed principles of curriculum building in gerontological nursing is as follows :
1) The course of study in gerontological nursing should be developed in combination of a separate course and integrated courses.
2) For the effectiveness of study, the subject of gerontology as a discipline including the general characteristics of aging is developed in a separate course, and implication of aging in various practice fields will be integrated into current courses of study as applicable.
3) A parallel gerontological nursing clinical practicum should be developed as an integral part of current fields of practice. Students learn about normal aging by experiencing well elderly in the family and community setting in sophomore year to foster positive attitude toward aged and agings. In junior and senior years, the practicum include the care of ill and well elderly in institutions of care and as an integral part of field experience in community nursing.
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