There is a growing need for professional psychology training in nursing home settings, and nursing homes provide a rich environment for teaching geropsychology competencies. We describe the nursing home training component of our Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Predoctoral Internship and Geropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship programs. Our…

Purpose: Decisions concerning end-of-life care depend on information contained in advance directives that are documented in residents' charts in the nursing home. The availability of that information depends on the quality of the chart and on the location of the information in the chart. No research was found that compared directives by the manner…

Purpose: We developed and tested theoretically derived procedures to observe physical environments experienced by nursing home residents at three nested levels: their rooms, the nursing unit, and the overall facility. Illustrating with selected descriptive results, in this article we discuss the development of the approach. Design and Methods: On…

In the current study, nursing home staff were taught to administer functional analyses to determine the variables maintaining aggression by an elder with dementia. The results indicated that aggression was evoked during bathroom routines and that escape maintained aggression. Staff then reduced aggression to near-zero levels with noncontingent…

This course in licensed vocational nursing, one of a series of bilingual English-Spanish vocational education courses, is designed to teach basic nursing principles needed by nurses' aides to do nursing procedures and skills in the different health care institutions. It covers many areas, including the following: the health care system, personal…

A two-part study was conducted to investigate the underrepresentation of blacks in the medical and nursing professions. Through a literature search it was found that due to the low number of minority applicants medical schools have created positions for minority recruiters who serve as role models, empathize with black student concerns, and help…

This article reviews the current and changing status of residential supports for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). It examines four major trends in those supports: (1) Decreasing use of larger institutions and increasing use of community housing; (2) Decreasing size among community settings; (3) Increasing numbers…

Purpose: Agitation frequently accompanies cognitive decline among nursing home residents. This study used cross-sectional and longitudinal (up to 18 months) methods to examine agitation among profoundly and moderately impaired residents using both staff report and direct observation methods. Design and Methods: The study included participants (N =…

Purpose: This paper reports on the adaptation of an existing interpretive and critical research methods course in nursing for postgraduate student health professionals in a School of Population Health and Clinical Practice. Methods: A cyclical approach of inquiry, reflection and planning was undertaken by the teaching team to make changes to the…

An study explored the extent to which integration of a philosophy of health in the educational curricula of nurses, midwives, and health visitors in Britain had been achieved. Four case studies and consultancy were undertaken, and both pre- and postregistration curricula were examined. Semistructured interviews, discussions, classroom…

Designed as the first phase of a larger project to explore the relationships between the possible impact of reminiscence on memory deterioration in elderly women confined to nursing home environments, a study demonstrated that reminiscence activity is positively correlated with increases in communication interactions. Women were chosen as the…

A practicum project addressed the problem of separation of generations. An intergenerational program was designed to provide elders at a long-term care facility and children at the on-site daycare center with opportunities to interact with one another for the social and emotional betterment of both groups. Participants in the program included 17…

The effects of two different approaches to training community nurses in patient self-care were evaluated. In an intensive workshop, 36 nurses were trained, and 19 of them received further personal guidance 11 times during a 6-month period. Their performance was assessed before the educational intervention, after the workshop, and after the…

A generic competence model for effective nursing performance was developed and compared with nurses' perceptions of job elements that discriminate outstanding nursing performance and that are critical in the selection and education of nurses. The model is to be used to validate the nursing faculty's existing competence model for nursing education…

A compilation of descriptions of 8 intergenerational educational programs, this report emphasizes the positive relationship between children and older people. These programs were selected to highlight differing program components, administrative structures, and funding bases. Two programs involve children visiting nursing homes. Elders work in…