Authors

  1. Chen, Jian (Lily) MA, RN, CNE

Article Content

Educating older adults' caregivers regarding COVID prevention is critical to protect this vulnerable population. In April 2020, students in an older adult nursing course in a Historically Black Colleges and Universities program used videoconferencing to educate staff and administrators in an assisted-living facility about COVID. The facility consists of 70 residents living in 7 different homes in Baltimore, Maryland. All residents have Medicaid. Eleven senior nursing students in an accelerated track were divided into 4 groups, and each group could choose from 7 different COVID-related topics to teach. Each group then presented its teaching project to the online audience. In addition to staff members and administrators, 2 experts (a nursing faculty member from a different nursing program and a previous researcher on SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome] in China) and a community leader also participated. Students taught strategies to prevent COVID, epidemiology in the context of global health, and how to do home and group home quarantine with self-care and social distancing. Students also addressed the psychological and social impacts on the elderly. This project allowed students to "create" the highest level of cognitive learning in a practical, contextual, and meaningful manner. In this project, students gained a formal teaching experience, met a community need, and built confidence from written feedbacks provided by external experts and the facility administrator.