“Geraware”, making geriatric care more attractive

Background One of the challenges faced in nursing education is generating students’ interest for working with frail elderly. Positive teacher communication may have a positive effect on students’ attitude towards the care for older adults and may also help them to make a deliberate choice in this direction. However, based on low attendance numbers at training initiatives, nursing teachers seem to have little interest in geriatric care. With the digital tool Geraware, we want teachers to discover the challenges of this nursing field and hereby increase awareness of their own attitude with regard to geriatric care. Methods The participant is guided through the life of an older women in her home environment, portrayed by herself, her children and the general practitioner. By means of questions throughout the story, he is invited to reflect on the provided care and alternative solutions and to take position. Comments can be shared with fellow users via built-in social media. The choice for a real person, the use of film fragments and learning by reflecting individually and from other users’ reactions are evidence-based principles integrated in the tool. The film fragments can be used as didactic material which may be an additional motivation for teachers to use the tool. All four university colleges of the Association KU Leuven, Belgium collaborated on the development of this project. Results The user experience and the usability of the tool was positively evaluated by 28 nursing teachers during an initial evaluation after one year of development. Based on this feedback, the tool was adjusted and finished. Conclusion Early 2017 the digital tool will be introduced to all the nursing teachers of the Associatie KULeuven and re-evaluated. We aim to demonstrate that this experience can contribute to enhancing the image of geriatric care.status: publishe