The community gerontological nurse: themes from a needs analysis

With the move of care into the community, the role of nurses caring for old er people is changing. However, nurses may not be adequately prepared to co pe with this changing role, especially if their training and experience hav e been primarily hospital based. This study involves an educational needs a nalysis of registered nurses working in the care of elder people in nursing homes and clients' own homes, It is based on focus groups with registered nurses and individual interviews with other professionals, as well as group discussions with older people. The aim of this project is to provide resea rch-based input into the design of a new community care of older people mod ule, to be offered at Napier University, Edinburgh from February 1998. The results presented here consist of three themes or patterns that have emerge d from the interview data. The specialist/generalist theme concerns issues of role definition and gerontological specialism. The social/medical theme addresses the shift towards a social model of care when nurses move into th e community settings. Finally, the physical health/mental health theme repr esents the need for greater integration of skills and knowledge from both m ental health and general health nursing in the field of community care for older people. The results indicate the need for significant attitude change s and provide a major challenge to educationalists.