Gerontological nursing content in baccalaureate nursing programs: Findingsfrom a national survey

Given the prevalence of elderly people in the health care system, it behoov es the nursing community to assure that every nurse graduating from a bacca laureate nursing program has a defined level of competency in care of the e lderly. To accomplish this, it is necessary to establish a baseline of the current status of geriatric content in the baccalaureate curriculum. This a rticle provides such baseline data using the findings of a national study o f geriatrics in baccalaureate nursing programs. The study, conducted in 199 7, was distributed to the universe of baccalaureate nursing programs (n = 5 98). The findings are based on a respondent pool of 480 programs (80.3 per cent response rate). The survey covered a range of educational topics, incl uding curriculum, content, faculty preparation, and how programs define the ir needs for further curriculum and faculty development. The data analysis included the identification of baccalaureate nursing programs with exemplar y offerings in geriatric care. Finally, in the discussion section, recommen dations are advanced for the full integration of geriatric content into bac calaureate nursing programs.