Aging-simulation experience: impact on health professionals' social representations.

BACKGROUND: Health professionals working with older persons are not sufficiently aware of the sensory and functional difficulties experienced by older patients. Innovative educational activities, such as the aging-simulation experience, can facilitate this awareness. This study describes the effects of an aging-simulation experience on health professionals' representations towards age-related limitations. METHODS: 306 health professionals, enrolled in university training in geriatrics/gerontology in the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, experienced an aging-simulation session wearing a special suit according to a predefined scenario. Before and after the aging-simulation experience, participants completed free association tests, with the inductive words vision, hearing, movement, fine dexterity and balance. Semantic categories were created from participants' free evocations using a correspondence table manually produced in Excel 2013 for Windows (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington). Moreover, participants' opinions on difficulties experienced by older people in relation to age-related limitations were studied using Likert scale questions. RESULTS: In total, 3060 free evocations were collected, and ten semantic categories were created. These categories were composed of participants' geriatric knowledge, about age-related limitations, and participants' feelings, about the experience of these limitations. These two aspects were impacted by the aging-simulation experience. Moreover, changes observed resulted in a better consideration of difficulties associated with age-related limitations. CONCLUSIONS: The aging-simulation experience is an effective educational tool to raise awareness among health professionals of age-related difficulties. This sensory activity allows health professionals to put themselves in the shoes of older patients and to feel age-related difficulties.

[Representation of old age, a challenge to be met]. / Représentation de la vieillesse, un défi à relever.

Old age is a complex, multidimensional concept, difficult to define. Aging is related to different fields of life (family life, social life, cultural life…) and is at the centre of debates. It is a real challenge to take an accurate viewpoint of this phenomenon.

[Experiment of simulation of age-related limitations, a pedagogical innovation]. / Expérience de simulation des limitations liées à l'âge, une innovation pédagogique.

Health simulation has become widely used in training institutes and health care institutions in recent years. In geriatric/gerontology training, a device for simulating age-related limitations is used allowing the participant to experience the functional and sensory limitations experienced by older people.

Expectations and Needs of Families in Nursing Homes: An Integrative Review.

A better understanding of the expectations and needs of the families of nursing home residents is needed for a constructive and sustainable relationship of mutual trust. The objective of this study was to understand the expectations of families of nursing home residents described in the literature. A systematic integrative review of the literature was conducted. After a rigorous selection made by two researchers, independently, 53 articles were selected out of 1,094 results. The expectations of families are quality care, consideration complying with human dignity of the resident, collaboration, honesty, and mutual confidence that ties together families, staff, and physicians. This study reveals that families consider themselves as a strength for a resident's support services, in line with Gottlieb's strength-based approach. This approach offers promising implications for practice and for a new type of management in nursing homes based on strong values.