Gerontologic home care: a prescription for distance continuing education

Visiting nurses are increasingly challenged by the health care delivery system to provide sophisticated technological care to a growing number of patients in their homes. Much of this care is devoted to the care of the older adult. Few nurses currently in practice have received formal preparation in gerontology; thus, a knowledge deficit exits. Recognizing the challenge of teaching visiting nurses to develop individual interests in the scientific and technologic aspects of gerontologic nursing, the Visiting Nurse Association of Cleveland designed and proposed a comprehensive project to teach gerontologic nursing using the American Nurses Association Standards of Gerontologic Nursing Practice (American Nurses Association, 1987) through discovery learning and distance education via computer and other educational interventions. Community health nursing offers a unique approach to linking practice to education and research and provides organizational and educational alternatives to traditional continuing education.