Student nurses' views of participating in an intergenerational café with older people
Background
Within the context of global ageing, older people will require health care during times in their later lives. As most nurses will care for older people across a variety of care settings, it is crucial that older people and nurses can work together in partnership. In preparation for this, it is important to develop intergenerational learning innovations for student nurses and older people. An online intergenerational discussion café was developed to provide an opportunity for older people and student nurses to meet and get to know each other.
Objectives
1) Evaluate the effectiveness of an intergenerational discussion café as a way of facilitating intergenerational learning, 2) Elicit participants' views on whether intergenerational learning had occurred.
Design
Ethically approved survey research.
Settings
Tertiary education institution.
Participants
Third year student nurses (n = 50) across three BSc Nursing pre-registration degree programmes enrolled on a shared community care module.
Methods
Post-café, student nurses were invited via email to voluntarily participate in the research and to complete an anonymous online survey. Questionnaire return implied consent. Fifty student nurses (n = 50) participated in the post café survey. Descriptive statistical analysis of Likert scale quantitative data and thematic analysis of open-ended questions was undertaken.
Results
Participants reported that the intergenerational cafés were well organised, worked well and strongly agreed that the cafés were helpful in facilitating student nurses and older people to connect socially and share views. Results also showed that participants felt they got to know a lot about older people and that they were in many ways quite similar to older people.
Conclusions
This study provides valuable information on the use of intergenerational cafés as a means of facilitating intergenerational learning. Findings indicate that it was a positive learning experience for participants.
History
Publication
Nurse Education Today, 2024, 133, 106050Publisher
ElsevierOther Funding information
This work was supported by the Health Research Institute/Health Implementation Science Technology, University of Limerick, Limerick, IrelandRights
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Nurse Educstion Today. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Student nurses' views of participating in an intergenerational café with older people,Nurse Education Today, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2023.106050Sustainable development goals
- (3) Good Health and Well-being
External identifier
Department or School
- Nursing and Midwifery
