| The population of adults over age 65 must have competently prepared registered nurses to meet their current and future health care needs. There is a societal component in nursing to ensure that all nurses have the content, skills, and strategies, which includes a focus on basic gerontology preparation. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to gather information from nurse educators about how gerontological content is intentionally included in the Connecticut Community College Nursing Program (CT-CCNP) curriculum. A single descriptive case study design was selected to obtain information about gerontology content inclusion within the Connecticut Community College Nursing Programs (CT-CCNP). The educational curriculum developmental framework by Glatthorn, Boschee, and Whitehead (2009) provided the lens to examine the intentional curriculum components included the a) written curriculum, (b) taught curriculum, and (c) tested curriculum. The data was collected from in-person interviews with participating nurse educators, completion of a survey questionnaire to supply supportive and descriptive information, and document review to provide background information. There were two primary conclusions. The first conclusion was nurse educators reported that they subjectively adhered to the established requirements in the written and taught curriculum for the inclusion of gerontological content. Second, they used independent judgments regarding the inclusion of gerontological content in the taught and tested curriculum. It is essential that efforts continue to ensure that gerontology content is explicitly and consistently integrated in the nursing programs. Therefore, it remains imperative to give emphasis to gerontology content inclusion in nursing education and research. |
