Communication Competence and Transdisciplinary Cooperation in Geriatric Nursing

Communication Competence and Transdisciplinary Cooperation in Geriatric Nursing: A Participatory Action Research

The ability to communicate and cooperate effectively is essential in geriatric nursing. However, nursing teachers lacked the exploration of the development of this ability and teaching evaluation in previous studies. The investigators used a systematic process to investigate methods for achieving the following goals: 1. Cultivate a positive attitude toward the elderly among nursing students. 2. Improve nursing students' communication competence and interaction skills when providing advanced health care services. 3. Improve the teaching skills of professional nursing instructors.

The ability to communicate and cooperate effectively is essential in geriatric nursing. However, nursing teachers lacked the exploration of the development of this ability and teaching evaluation in previous studies. The investigators used a systematic process to investigate methods for achieving the following goals: 1. Cultivate a positive attitude toward the elderly among nursing students. 2. Improve nursing students' communication competence and interaction skills when providing advanced health care services. 3. Improve the teaching skills of professional nursing instructors.

Using an action research approach, the investigators designed a pair of geriatric nursing and practicum courses and recruited a class of in-service nursing students through convenience sampling in a college setting. The intervention was an 18-week course in geriatric nursing that meets once a week in the classroom and internship practice in settings used for training nursing students. The investigators collected using quantitative indicators (attitude measurements) and qualitative textual analysis. The quantitative data were analyzed by paired t-testing using SPSS 21.0 software.

Inclusion Criteria:

• The research object of this project will be the students in the nursing class of a university (third year students), and the students who have taken 2 credits each of "Geriatric Nursing" and "Geriatric Nursing Internship" in a working class.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Not a junior in a working class in a university nursing department.Those who have not completed the courses of "Geriatric Nursing" and "Geriatric Nursing Internship".