News and Media Research Centre
University of Canberra
Building 9, Level C, Room 10
15/02/2024 |
Faculty of Health
Redefining aged care nursing for a new generation
The University of Canberra in collaboration with Curtin University, Edith Cowan University and the University of Wollongong, developed the Clinical Placements with Older People (CPOP) program, leading the way in preparing the next generation of gerontological nurses to meet the complex needs of our aging population.
With high demand for nurses across all aspects of the healthcare sector, offering nursing students a challenging and rewarding experience in a non-hospital aged care setting was the driving force behind the new program. The program is countering negative ageism stereotypes by immersing students in real-world aged care settings and providing mentorship from experienced gerontological nurses. CPOP fosters deeper understanding of this specialised field and ensures graduates are not only technically proficient, but also deeply compassionate.
Traditionally the majority of pre-registration nursing students are allocated a clinical placement in aged care. These clinical placement experiences commonly occur early in a nursing degree, and focus on the development of fundamental care skills, communication, and the activities of daily living. During these clinical placement experience, nursing students are often paired with care staff, but have minimal engagement with registered nurses. This lack of engagement between students and registered nurses leads to misinformation about the complexity of nursing care for older people and influences the student’s negative perception of what aged care work is, and how attractive it is as a future career.
The CPOP program was developed to support final year degree nursing students to engage with the work undertaken by registered nurses. It is anticipated that this engagement will improve the awareness and understanding of the role of the registered nurse in aged care.
Mentors supporting the students are equipped with additional specialist knowledge regarding gerontological nursing: including content knowledge of dementia, delirium and palliative care, as well as specialist skills in pain and cognitive assessments, supported decision making and dignity of risk.
As the demand for skilled aged care professionals continues to rise, CPOP is changing the quality and quantity of student nursing experiences working with people over age 65 (or 45 for First Nations people). The positive experiences and insights into the complexity of the specialty of gerontological nursing will change the way that nurses approach their career pathways into the future, with more nurses feeling valued and rewarded by working in the gerontological sector.
“In the hospital, we were allocated different patients for each shift, but here [aged care facility] we get to build a rapport with the residents who we see every day, which has really widened my experience.”
Marcus Goh, Third-year Bachelor of Nursing student.
To date, 432 placements have been completed within CPOP with 76 Clinical Facilitators (17 ACT) successfully completing CPOP training. Placements have been hosted in 194 residential aged care settings, 45 in community and 195 in hospital settings. 119 different organisations have hosted CPOP placements across Canberra, Wollongong and Western Australia.
Project Aims
To improve the care of older people by:
- Focusing on supporting learning of later year nursing students.
- Facilitated learning in practice by speciality trained clinical facilitators
- Improving awareness and understanding of the role of the registered nurse in aged care
Partners
- University of Wollongong
- Edith Cowen University
- Curtin University
- Canberra Health Services
ACT Residential Aged Care Providers:
- BaptistCare - Carey Gardens – Red Hill
- Calvary Haydon Retirement Community – Bruce
- Jindalee Aged Care Residence – Narrabundah
- Mountain View Aged Care - The Salvation Army Aged Care – Narrabundah
- RFBI Masonic Village – Holt
- RSL LifeCare - Kaleen (Mona Tait Gardens)
- RSL LifeCare - Lyneham (Sir Leslie Morshead Manor)
- Southern Cross Care Residential Aged Care – Campbell
- Warrigal – Calwell
- Warrigal – Stirling
- LDK Greenway Views - Greenway
Research team
Centre for Aging Research and Translation and staff of Faculty of Health
- Kasia Bail
- Diane Gibson
- Stephen Isbel
- Nathan D’Cunha
- Jenny Weller-Newton
- Alicia Hind
- Steph Munk
- Holly Northam
- Ash Smyth
Learn more
“Nurturing the next generation of aged care nurses”, UnCover, 2024
“University of Canberra secures $2.1m to bolster aged care nursing workforce”, Inside Aging 2023
“Join in developing a new wave of nurse graduates”, Australian Aging Agenda, 2022
“Making aged care nursing ‘sexy’: Special interest group for gerontological nurses launched”, Australian Nursing & Midwifery Journal, 2022
“UC collaboration forms new alliance for nurses dedicated to the care of older people” UC News, 2022
