Merle Mast, PhD, RN, Professor Erika Metzler Sawin, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor Kathleen Pantaleo, B.S. Gerontology, Director CCN

 The project was supported by the GTE Award Fund of Virginia  Special thanks to consultant Lynda Markut

 Understand the needs of frail older adults and their family caregivers  Examine the value of narrative pedagogy in nursing education  Relate Narrative Pedagogy to a group simulation to teach students about the needs of older adults and their caregivers

 The U.S. is aging  Most frail older adults are cared for at home  The burdens of CG lead to emotional and physical distress  Effective strategies are needed to teach students to understand the needs of caregiving families

 Create learning experience using narrative pedagogy (Diekelmann, 2001) to enhance understanding of:  common issues and needs of family CG  complex network of health and human services that caregiving families must navigate

 Determine Key Elements  Staffing for simulation  Family caregiving scenarios  Possible interventions  Determine overall goals & objectives for “families”  Long-term solutions for caregiving dilemma  Maintain normal household activities of daily living  Handle inevitable emergencies that arise  Create compelling stories for scenarios  Pull from CCN experience  Utilize consultant

 Students oriented and organized into “families”, assuming roles.  Day in the Life of a Caregiver divided into three-15 minute time periods during which tasks and resources are used to achieve goals and objectives.  Small group discussions facilitated by faculty, followed by large group debrief to identify themes.

 Pilot data from 26 students enrolled in NSG 313 Issues and Applications of Family Caregiving  Mean student rating of simulation: 7.68 (SD 1.44)  Narrative feedback obtained after simulation via journals  Descriptive and interpretive phenomenological analysis

 Value of the Simulation Method  “put ourselves in the shoes of”  …”became more aware of”  Enhanced knowledge and awareness of services  “Real life” knowledge and understanding of wide array of services available for families  “interdisciplinary approaches” to service provision  Understanding of the stress and burdens experiences by caregiving families  “A caregiver not only devotes their time to an aging family member, but also has a life of their own to manage.”

 Simulation allowed students to:  experience the stress and burdens of caregiving first-hand  Gain knowledge of the wide array of caregiving services  Develop their professional roles  Future plans for simulation  Further development and revision  Offer more broadly

 Diekelmann, N. (2001). Narrative pedagogy: Heideggerian hermeneutical analyses of lived experiences of students, teachers, and clinicians. ANS.Advances in Nursing Science, 23(3),  Others available on request