GEROM NEWSLETTER
| ISSUE 2 • December 2008 |
Inside this issue ? Presentation of the GEROM project ? Curriculum of the GEROM ? Progress on the project ? 2nd face to face meeting at the University of Surrey ? GEROM researcher presented the project in the United States
Presentation of the GEROM project Demographic changes, technical advances and pressure from professional bodies are forcing nurse educators to rethink how they construct curricula. Demographic changes have profoundly influenced the structure of present and future populations; this is in terms of the number of older people requiring care, the nature of that care, where care can and is given and finally, those who give the care. Demands, by older people, for either social care or care during a chronic and/or acute health episode is very likely to escalate. Meeting that demand requires creative thinking as well as an awareness of technological advances and how they might be utilised. In addition to a growing and ageing population demographic changes are also influencing the number of available carers. The challenge of meeting the needs of long term care has been identified, raising the need for more highly educated health care providers. Meeting the diversity of needs indicated in the preceding paragraphs highlights the necessity to facilitate the process of information giving in both the elderly population and in the caring population.
The challenge is great but this innovative curricula and the use of technology, can facilitate achievable outcomes through quality education. The project offers a unique opportunity for project participants to consider local, national and international demographic issues and how they are liable to influence a European society. Although the project is initially aimed at the nursing population of caregivers, the curriculum could potentially be attractive to other health care professionals such as social care workers. The master degree programme will be available as an e-learning course including adaptive e-course materials. To prepare the e-learning materials we will use the innovative MetaTool which enable the programme creators /developers to prepare adaptive, flexible course materials. As the eLearning platform we will use the open source platform called Moodle extended with MetaTool plug-ins enabling personalization of learning paths for each individual student. Another innovation is the virtual environment for clinical practice, which will enable the students to train clinical and nursing interventions, nursing
diagnosing, and similar at home using the ICT technology and the use of Simulation centre for training emergency and intensive care procedures. [Photo: Kick off meeting, Maribor, February 2008)
Curriculum of the GEROM Module 1: Global context of ageing
15 ECTS
Module 1
Module 2: Theoretical bases of ageing
15 ECTS
Module 2
Module 3: Research and Innovations
15 ECTS
Module 3
*Module 4: Informatics
15 ECTS
Optional module
*Module 5: Ethical Issues in Older Person Care
15 ECTS
*Module 6: Leadership and Management
15 ECTS
Optional module
*Module 7: Positive ageing
15 ECTS
Optional module
*Module 8: Ambient assisted living
15 ECTS Module 9
Module 9: Dissertation
30 ECTS
SEMESTER 1 [30 ECTS] SEMESTER 2 [30 ECTS]
SEMESTER 3 [30 ECTS] SEMESTER 4 [30 ECTS]
* Optional modules
Progress on the project Project consortium executed kick of meeting in Maribor (21st and 22nd February 2008, two virtual meetings (11th July and 7th November 2008), and face to cafe meeting in Guildford (12th and 13th December 2008).
Virtual meeting, July 2008
Virtual meeting, November 2008
Image above: Team brainstorming regarding the GEROM curriculum, Guildford, December 2008
2nd face to face meeting at the University of Surrey GEROM project team executed in December 2008 the second face to face meeting at the partner institution University of Surrey. The main focus of the meeting was to discuss and work on the GEROM curriculum. At the project were present members of the team as follows: Peter Kokol, Helena BlaĹžun, Gregor Ĺ tiglic (University of Maribor), Pam Smith, Khim Horton, Lee Ann Sequeira (University of Surrey), Rita Collins and Loretta Crawley (University College Dublin).
GEROM researcher presented the project in the United States Prof Dr Peter Kokol and Helena Blazun visited within the bilateral cooperation the Vanderbilt University from 4th till 12th December 2008. The main aim of the visit was the presentation of the Faculty of Health Sciences and searching for the possibilities for the further international cooperation and to present the GEROM project. USA partners showed great interest in the project, especially to the curriculum which will be developed and offered online to all interested health care professionals. The researchers executed many different meetings and discussed about the students and professors mobility possibilities within the GEROM curriculum, and about the participation on the International summer school which will be organized by the University of Maribor, University of Surrey and the University College Dublin. Both researchers from the University of Maribor was a part of the pedagogical activities, they actively participated in the execution of the simulations in community care and they will both transfer gained knowledge to the benefit of the GEROM curriculum.
Editors Peter Kokol Helena Blažun Gregor Štiglic Prepared by Helena Blažun Design Borut Gaber Disclaimer This project has been/is funded with support from the European Commission under the Agreement number 20072583/001-001, project number 134498-LLP-1-SIERASMUS-ECDSP. This contribution reflects views/view only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Further details and contact information for the GEROM project can be found on the GEROM web page at (http://www.gerom.net/).