Universitat Internacional de Catalunya

Caregiving for the Elderly

Caregiving for the Elderly
4
9087
3
Second semester
OB
Module Nursing Care from Birth to Death
Nursing Care for Elder
Main language of instruction: Spanish

Teaching staff


  • At the end of the lesson and by e-mail

Introduction

The aging of the population in developed countries has led to major changes in health policies adopted by different Governments. The increase in life expectancy generates an increase in demand for health care, that means an improvement of the quality of life during this life stage. Due to the physical and psychosocial changes that occur at this stage of life, nurses who understand the complexity of health needs of this population group are needed.

Pre-course requirements

  • Not required
The Department of Nursing in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences has agreed that it is compulsory for all students taking a Bachelor's degree in Nursing, when participating in online classes, to turn on their camera and remain visible to lecturers and professors at all times.

Objectives

  1. This programme aims to develop the skills needed so that nurses can assume safely the care of the elderly, situations of dependency, and of the families / caregivers, either at both institutional and home healthcare level.

Competences/Learning outcomes of the degree programme

  • 12. B - Know and observe the ethical code of conduct of Spanish nursing, understanding the ethical implications of health in a changing global context.
  • 13. G - Know the principles of health-care funding and use resources appropriately.
  • 19. B - Ability to make decisions based on critical thinking and reflective practice.
  • 1. G - Ability to provide technical and professional health care appropriate to the health needs of the people they treat, with full technical and scientific autonomy, according to current and available scientific knowledge and to the quality standards and safety requirements set forth in the applicable legal standards and code of ethics.
  • 2. E - Plan and provide nursing care for individuals or groups, taking health outcomes into account and their impact, through guidelines for clinical practice and care, which describe the four processes by which a health problem is diagnosed or treated.
  • 4. B - Understand the interactive behavior of the person according to their gender, group or community, within their social and multicultural context.
  • 7. B - Understand people without prejudice, considering their physical, psychological and social aspects, as autonomous and independent individuals, ensuring respect for their opinions, beliefs and values, ensuring their right to privacy through confidentiality and professional secrecy.
  • 9. E - Promote healthy lifestyles, self-care, as well as the maintenance of therapeutic and preventive behaviors.

Learning outcomes of the subject

  • Show understanding toward the aging process as a global, complex and contextualized process.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the scientific basis underlying the aging process.
  • Identify relevant socio-demographic indicators of the elderly population.
  • Make use of the different instruments for a comprehensive geriatric assessment (VGI in Spanish)
  • Develop Care Plans using the information obtained from the elderly person and her or his social and family environment and from the scientific evidence on care for the elderly.
  • Analyze the ethical and legal aspects that arise in the daily care of the elderly.
  • Know the indication and use of health products linked to nursing care. 
  • Indication and use of medicines evaluating the expected benefits and the associated risks and/or effects derived from their administration and consumption.

Syllabus

Unit 1: The Aging Process. Introductory aspects

Unit 2. Policy health and social care for the elderly population

Unit 3. Changes inherent to the process of individual aging

Unit 4. The comprehensive geriatric assessment

Unit 5. The elderly with health problems. The main geriatric syndromes

Unit 6. Immigrant caregivers

Unit 7. Ethical considerations in elderly care

Unit 8. Palliative care for the elderly

Unit 9. Old age and death

Teaching and learning activities

In person



  • Cooperative Learning
  • Interview Completion
  • Role-playing
  • Discussion
  • Videos
  • Critical reading of articles
  • Cases

Evaluation systems and criteria

In person



Relative value of each stage of evaluation in the overall evaluation:

The subject will be evaluated during the semester by continuous evaluation systems with a percentage of 40% and a final exam worth 60%. This will be a multiple choice and/or a short questions exam. The continuous evaluation consists of:

  • Non virtual independent work: an interview with an elderly person and an exercise about it (25%)
  • Continuous evaluation with questionnaires in moodle, and classroom exercises (15%: questionnaires 10% and classroom excercises 5%)
  • Leadership project: within the class calendar it will be developed in 2 days. Failure to attend these two days will lead to a penalty in the final grade of the course. Not attending one of the classes will have a penalty of 0.3 points and in the case of missing both sessions, it will be penalised with a reduction of 0.5 points in the final grade, so that the student could fail the course for not attending the sessions. This penalty is applied in 1st and 2nd call.

General evaluation criteria:

  • It is mandatory to pass the final exam in order to take average of all the marks.
  • Final exam 60%

Second assessment:

The subject will be evaluated with a final exam worth 60% of the final mark and the continuous evaluation will value of 40%. The 40% of the continuous evaluation can be retaken as follows:  

  • Carry out the interview and the elderly photography exercise again with a value of 25%. In any case, the mark obtained will never be higher than a 5.
  • In case the failure of the subject is caused by non-attendance to the leaership sessions, it can be recovered in the 2nd call, through the completion of an individual work with the themes of the sessions. 
  • The rest of the continuous assessment mark will not be able to be retaken.

The final mark of the course is obtained through taking the average of all the marks in the subject. First Class Honors will not be awarded in the first resit.

Second and third resits (and extraordinary cases)

The subject will be evaluated with the same system as in the examination and the first resit and marks from previous years will not have any value in the subsequent resits.

Honor Matrix Assignment Procedure (MH)

  1. The criterion for assigning Honorary Enrolments (MH) is based on the Excellent (9.0).
  2. The assignment is solely for the teacher and does not have to give it, even if the student has obtained a mark above 9.0.
  3. In case the teacher decides to award MH, he will not take into account the numerical mark and the highest, but will evaluate other factors. The HM might not match the highest numeric score.

Procedure for Non-presented Assignment (NP)

  1. To register an NP in the student's file, it must not have been submitted to any of the evaluation tests throughout the assignment.
  2. If a student has submitted to one of the evaluation tests, the corresponding percentages in the teaching guide will be applied, with a 0 in those not presented.

Bibliography and resources

  • BAYÉS, R. (2006). Afrontando la vida, esperando la muerte. Madrid: Alianza.
  • FRANKL, V.E. (1946). El hombre en busca de sentido (18ª ed.). Barcelona: Herder, 1996.
  • M.M.BURKE; M.B. WALSH. Enfermería gerontológica. Mc.GRAW HILL. Interamericana. 1998
  • KASCHAK NEWMAN, D.; JACOVAC SMITH, D. Planes de cuidados en Geriatría. Barcelona: Doyma, 1994
  • GRUPO DE TRABAJO DE ATENCIÓN AL MAYOR. Atención a las personas mayores. Barcelona: semFYC, 2005
  • Llibre Blanc de les Activitats preventives per a la gent gran. Departament de Sanitat i Seguritat Social. Generalitat de Catalunya. 1999
  • ROACH, SALLY. Introductory Gerontological Nursing. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2001.
  • ROGERS-SEIDL, FRANCES F. Planes de Cuidados en Enfermería Geriátrica. Barcelona: Masson, 1995.
  • STAAB, A.S. and HODGES, L.C. Enfermería Gerontológica. Mexico D.F. : McGraw-Hill, 1996
  • Revista GEROKOMOS. Revista de la Sociedad Española de Enfermería Geriátrica y Gerontológica. Barcelona: SPA, S.L.
  • FERNANDEZ- BALLESTEROS, R. Mitos y realidades sobre la vejez y la salud. Fundación La Caixa. Barcelona: SG ediciones SA: 1992
  • KANE, ROSALIE.; and KANE , ROBERT. Evaluación de las necesidades de los ancianos. Fundación La Caixa. Barcelona: SG ediciones SA: 1993
  • LAFOREST, J. Introducción a la Gerontología. Barcelona: Herder, 1991
  • MARTÍNEZ, Mª B., MONLEÓN, M., CARRETERO, Y., GARCÍA-VAQUERO M.T. (2012). Enfermería en Cuidados Paliativos y al final de la vida. Barcelona: Elsevier.
  • NEWMAN and SMITH. Planes de cuidados en Geriatría. Barcelona: Paradigma, 1994
  • NULAND, S.B. (1993). How we die: reflections on life's final chapter. Traducción castellana: Cómo morimos: Reflexiones sobre el último capítulo de la vida.  Madrid: Alianza, 1995.
  • PINILLOS, J.L. y col. Una aproximación pluridisciplinar al entorno de la vejez. Fundación La Caixa. Barcelona: SG ediciones SA: 1994

Evaluation period

E: exam date | R: revision date | 1: first session | 2: second session:
  • E1 21/06/2024 12:00h
  • R1 01/07/2024 10:00h
  • E2 09/07/2024 12:00h
  • R2 19/07/2024 10:00h