Geriatric and gerontology nursing curricular trends

The amount of geriatric and gerontology content in a nursing curriculum does not appear to influence students' attitudes about aging. However, based on the findings of this study, specific content areas should be addressed in nursing curricula. These content areas include: 1) social changes as well as physical changes that occur to elderly persons and adaptation patterns of these individuals; 2) usefulness of aged persons and the contributions they can and do make to society; 3) characteristics of the well elderly as opposed to total concentration on the sick elderly. The inclusion of these content areas might assist the nursing student in developing a more positive attitude about aging.