A GERONTOLOGICAL CONTINUING-EDUCATION PROGRAM - THE RESIDENT ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT AS A TEACHING TOOL FOR NURSING-HOME PROFESSIONALS

We describe the development, implementation and evaluation of multidis ciplinary courses in nursing home care for health care professionals. We examined the most important training needs-understanding the older client, understanding the geriatric care services, Knowing the techniq ues of case management, and understanding long-Perm case management-an d recognized that the key to most of them is a skilled assessment know ledge in the care of the elderly. Therefore, we focused two courses on the teaching of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI). We verified that the RAI provided students with good assessment skills and solid expertise in the decisional process, which are the prerequisites for q uality improvement in elderly care.