GEROMNEWSLETTER| ISSUE 2 • December 2008 |

Demographic changes, technical a d v a n c e s a n d p r e s s u r e f r o m 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 S imu lat ion cent re fo r t ra in ing emergency and intensive care procedures.

[Photo: Kick off meeting, Maribor, February 2008)

Presentation of the GEROM project

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

Image above: Team brainstorming regarding the GEROM curriculum, Guildford, December 2008

stProject consortium executed kick of meeting in Maribor (21 nd th thand 22 February 2008, two virtual meetings (11 July and 7

thNovember 2008), and face to cafe meeting in Guildford (12 thand 13 December 2008).

Curriculum of the GEROM

Progress on the project

Module 1: Global context of ageing Module 1 SEMESTER 1[30 ECTS]

SEMESTER 2[30 ECTS]

SEMESTER 3[30 ECTS]

SEMESTER 4[30 ECTS]

Module 2

Module 3

Optional module

Optional module

Optional module

Module 9

15 ECTS

Module 2: Theoretical bases of ageing 15 ECTS

Module 3: Research and Innovations 15 ECTS

*Module 4: Informatics 15 ECTS

*Module 5: Ethical Issues in Older Person Care 15 ECTS

*Module 6: Leadership and Management 15 ECTS

*Module 7: Positive ageing 15 ECTS

*Module 8: Ambient assisted living 15 ECTS

Module 9: Dissertation 30 ECTS

* Optional modules

Virtual meeting, July 2008

Virtual meeting, November 2008

G E R O M p r o j e c t t e a m 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 p r o j e c t w e r e p r e s e n t members of the team as follows:Peter Kokol, Helena Blažun, Gregor Štiglic (University of Maribor), Pam Smith, Khim Horton, Lee Ann Sequeira (University of Surrey), Rita Collins and Loretta Crawley (University College Dublin).

nd2 face to face meeting at the University of Surrey

EditorsPeter KokolHelena BlažunGregor Štiglic

Prepared byHelena Blažun

DesignBorut Gaber

DisclaimerThis project has been/is funded with support from the European Commission under the Agreement number 2007-2 5 8 3 / 0 0 1 - 0 0 1 , p r o j e c t number 134498-LLP-1-SI-ERASMUS-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 G E R O M w e b p a g e a t (http://www.gerom.net/).

GEROM researcher presented the project in the United States

th thProf Dr Peter Kokol and Helena Blazun visited within the bilateral cooperation the Vanderbilt University from 4 till 12 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.