Integrating long-term care concepts into baccalaureate nursing education: the road to quality geriatric health care

Increased numbers of aging Americans requires that today's health care professionals be grounded in education that focuses on patient-centered care of older adults. The growing demand for competent geriatric nurses in West Texas, led the School of Nursing (SON) at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) to conduct an in-depth analysis of its baccalaureate curriculum to determine how, when, and where care of older adults was being addressed. A task force appointed by the SON subsequently chose, as a blueprint for curricular redesign, Older Adults: Recommended Baccalaureate Competencies and Curricular Guidelines for Geriatric Nursing Care (American Association of Colleges of Nursing & the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing, 2000). This article describes how the SON task force planned and implemented a new and strengthened geriatric core in its curricula.