Multimodal teaching strategies work well in training nurses for the long-term care workforce, according to the results of a newly published study in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.
“Multimodal teaching strategies and assessment methods are essential to increase the nursing workforce in an attempt to meet staffing demands in LTC facilities,” according to the authors.
To address the acute shortage of caregivers for the growing number of residents in long-term care facilities, researchers from Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine developed and tested an innovative curriculum for nursing students, with the goal of preparing them to work in geriatric care.
The curriculum is multi-modal in both instruction (for example, online learning and virtual standardized patients [or SPs]) and assessment.
“We found coupling online educational modalities with virtual SPs showed promising results for BSN education and deserves further evaluation,” the authors wrote. “Students’ responses indicated the web-based content was helpful both for providing instruction and feedback.”
The researchers said they believe that the curriculum, which is one of the first to use virtual standardized patients, could be incorporated into various healthcare provider training programs worldwide.
“Our hope is that by showing the effectiveness of geriatric virtual standardized patients in educating nurses about geriatric care, this approach could be used in the training of professionals providing patient care to other age groups and for various diseases in a wide range of geographic settings,” said Regenstrief Institute and IU School of Medicine research scientist Debra Litzelman, MD, MA, the senior author of the study.
