Supporting elder persons in rural Japanese communities through preventive home visits by nursing students: A qualitative descriptive analysis of students' reports.

ABSTRACT

This article describes the evaluation of an innovative nursing education curriculum project, preventive home visiting practice, which began full implementation in 2015, in terms of students' learning outcomes. For the purpose of learning how elder persons live in community, all the 327 undergraduate nursing students, from freshmen to seniors, provided monthly or bi-monthly visits to home-dwelling elderly persons aged 75 or above in their home over 1 year period, in order to provide support for their independent living and to learn from them. The students' reports submitted at the end of the first academic year were qualitatively analyzed to evaluate what they learned. They acquired multiple perspectives for understanding elder persons, including a variety of individual and environmental aspects of wellness, prevention, and community life. They also acknowledged the importance of team practice through working and collaborating with different grade levels and generations. Overall, the observed learning contents were useful for future nursing education with elder persons and facilitating critical changes in nursing education systems to address the problems of aged society.