ACE.S Teaching Strategies

The teaching strategies offered in this section are guidelines for faculty to develop encounters with older adults that are intentional and that incorporate all or some of the ACE.S Knowledge Domains and Essential Nursing Actions into student learning experiences. The teaching strategies are categorized according to their major focus in the context of the ACE.S Knowledge Domains, but each of them covers more than one of the knowledge domains and essential nursing actions.

Individualized Aging

Since the aging process is unique to each individual, assessing function and expectations of care is essential.

Assessment of Older Adults in Long-Term Care

Caring for the Older Adult Living in the Community

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of U.S. adults aged 65 years old or older will more than double to reach about 71 million by 2030. Many of these older adults will continue to live and enjoy life in their communities. Health promotion for older adults living in the community is directed at interventions and services to prolong independence and functional status. This teaching strategy can be used to enhance the learning of students in beginning prelicensure nursing courses.

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Dorothy as the Prototype in Looking at Client Expectations; Quality of Life and Functioning

The nursing process focuses on the prioritization of care based on the assessment of the problem followed by the formulation of a nursing diagnosis, then planning and implementing care, and finally evaluating the process. When nursing students think of the priorities of care they generally focus on a medical model. While prioritizing such important issues as the ABCs (airway, breathing, and circulation) is inarguably vital and often the catalyst for interface with the health care system, these issues are often not the priorities identified by the client. Many times client priorities are more closely linked to quality of life issues than to life sustaining issues, especially in the case of older adults.

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Examining Risks and Benefits to Enhance Quality of Life

This teaching strategy is designed to help students feel comfortable initiating conversations with older adults about risks they may be willing to take to achieve benefits that may improve quality of life. It also is meant to raise awareness of decisions older adults make which may be unconventional within the context of a best practices model, yet are consistent with the older person’s wishes, expectations, resources, cultural traditions, and strengths.

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Sexuality and the Older Adult

Sexuality is at the core of who we are and has an impact on our lives in so many ways. It does not stop once we hit the age of 60 or 70 or 90 or even 100 despite the myths and assumptions of society. Sexual desire does not necessarily dissipate with age, but the physical, cognitive, and psychosocial changes that can occur with aging may interfere with sexual outcomes.

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Utilizing Resources to Support Independence and Quality of Life Issues in Older Adults

Feeling productive, relevant, and independent are significant to the quality of life of most people. These qualities often become diminished with older adults as they are faced with maintaining dignity in the face of functional challenges. This teaching strategy focuses on working collaboratively with an older adult who has both physical and psychosocial challenges to find resources to maintain independence and strategize to optimize his quality of life.

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Complexity of Care

The care of older adults requires specialized knowledge in the art and science of both nursing and medicine to manage the interplay of factors that influence quality of care.

Developing Interprofessional Education and Practice in Oral Health

Elder Abuse in the United States

Geriatric Syndromes

Importance of Oral-Systemic Health in Older Adults

Oral health is directly related to systemic health in all individuals, but particularly in older adults. Oral health has a significant impact on the overall health and well-being of individuals across their life span. Among older adults, poor oral health is associated with pain, loss of teeth, poor nutrition, increased risk for systemic conditions, and serious morbidity and mortality in the case of oral cancer. The projected aging of the US population, coupled with the increasing number of adults retaining their teeth, is creating an unprecedented need for oral health care among older adults.

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Mental Health Needs of Older Adults

The mental health needs of older adults encompass a wide range of presentations. Frequently these get pushed aside as addenda to the other complexities of care when they need to be prioritized to better optimize care of older adults. This teaching strategy looks at the most frequent mental health issues seen in older adults and creative ways to help students better grasp and address these issues.

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Oral Health for the Older Adult Living in the Community

Performing Oral Health Assessments

Student-Led Geriatric Nursing Conference: Evidence in Practice

This teaching strategy provides students with the opportunity to develop research-based sessions that address key clinical issues related to care of older adults in hospital and rehabilitation settings. This teaching strategy is based on a student-led, all-day conference that evolved over time at Community College of Philadelphia, and has become a much anticipated event in the Community College of Philadelphia Department of Nursing.

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Using Case Study Betsy to Understand Down's Syndrome & Dementia

Using Cinema to Enhance Teaching Issues Related to Older Adults

Psychosocial issues, issues of transitions, and ethical dilemmas are often best portrayed with application to a storyline. This technique makes the topics more relevant and better helps students to connect. Storylines can prompt rich discussion and often resonate with the students’ experiences to allow them to better process the complexities of caring for older adults. Cinema footage can be used in clips or in their entirety to set the stage to meet the instructors’ specific objectives.

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Using the Monologue of Doris Smith to Understand Situational Decision-Making

Older adults are among the nurse’s most complex clients. They represent a broad spectrum of strengths, needs, and expectations. Yet, nurses find themselves wondering if the care decisions they make produce the best outcomes for this population. This teaching strategy will use a monologue of a nurse who provided care for older adult, Doris, to address the need for effective situational decision making.

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Vulnerability During Transitions

Older adulthood is dynamic as the person transitions from one form, state, activity, or place to another. Transitions have the potential to create upheaval and disequilibrium for older adults and their families.

Caring for the Caregiver

Older adults, especially older adults with an underlying dementia are more vulnerable to developing delirium. The presentation of delirium characterized as an abrupt change in mental status caused by physiological consequences of a medical condition is very frightening to family caregivers. The change in the level of functioning, abrupt behavioral changes sometimes marked by psychosis and agitation, and altered confusion is devastating. It is not uncommon for caregivers to believe that the presentation of symptoms is a rapid acceleration of the dementia.

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Caring for the Older Adult at Risk for Falling

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lists “Falls” as a never event; non-reimbursable when occurring in hospital settings. Falls represent the leading cause of fatal injury in older adults (CDC, 2017). Older adults are among the patients at greatest risks for complications related to falls. Falls in community settings are the most common case of nonfatal trauma related hospital admissions. This teaching strategy will guide faculty to teach nursing students how to use nursing judgment when weighing the risks and benefits of preventing falls in older adults.

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Coordinating and Managing Care During Transitions Among Care Settings

Older adults transitioning among care settings, such as from the hospital to home, especially those with multiple co-morbidities, are particularly vulnerable. Likewise, transitions are not necessarily limited to physical settings but can also include changes in activities, adjustment to the loss of a spouse or loved one, and changes in medication; all of which carry a vulnerability in optimizing health.

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End-of-Life Decision Making for Older Adults: Competent and Compassionate Care

The complexities and challenges older adults and their families confront during end-of-life transitions can be overwhelming. The interdisciplinary health care team plays an important role in helping ensure each older adult has individualized, compassionate, humanistic, and dignified care at the end of life. The following teaching strategy can be used to introduce end-of-life care and enhance the learning of students in beginning and/or advanced pre-licensure nursing courses.

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Myths of Aging

Using Continuing Care Retirement Communities to Enhance a Better Understanding of Older Adults

Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRC) provide varying levels of support to older adults. These CCRCs provide valuable teaching and learning opportunities for pre-licensure nursing students that enhance their understanding of older adults. This teaching strategy provides activities to help students better understand the complexity of care of older adults as a way to develop a sense of empathy and value for this population.

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