Aging-simulation Experience: Impact on Health Professionals' Social Representations

Overview

Journal BMC Geriatr

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Geriatrics

Date 2020 Jan 23

PMID 31964337

Citations 5

Authors

Julie Giner Perot

Witold Jarzebowski

Carmelo Lafuente-Lafuente

Cyril Crozet

Joel Belmin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

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.

Citing Articles

Gerontology and Geriatrics in Undergraduate Nursing Education in Portugal and Spain: An Integrative and Comparative Curriculum Review.

Alves S, Magalhaes C, Fernandes A, Palmero M, Fernandes H Healthcare (Basel). 2024; 12(17).

PMID: 39273810 PMC: 11395543. DOI: 10.3390/healthcare12171786.

"It´s like walking in a bubble", nursing students´ perspectives on age suit simulation in a home environment - group interviews from reflection seminars.

Bouwmeester Stjernetun B, Gillsjo C, Odzakovic E, Hallgren J BMC Nurs. 2024; 23(1):124.

PMID: 38365670 PMC: 10870535. DOI: 10.1186/s12912-024-01792-5.

Nursing students' views of the impact of geriatric role-play workshops on professional competencies: survey.

Benko E, Persolja M BMC Nurs. 2023; 22(1):203.

PMID: 37316872 PMC: 10265884. DOI: 10.1186/s12912-023-01373-y.

Effects of age simulation suits on psychological and physical outcomes: a systematic review.

Gerhardy T, Schlomann A, Wahl H, Schmidt L Eur J Ageing. 2022; 19(4):953-976.

PMID: 36506694 PMC: 9729636. DOI: 10.1007/s10433-022-00722-1.

Walking a mile in Grandma's shoes - medical students' evaluation of a very simple online aging game to enhance their understanding of older patients.

Geier A, Lippmann S, Rau A, Schrimpf A, Bleckwenn M, Deutsch T BMC Geriatr. 2022; 22(1):865.

PMID: 36384454 PMC: 9667442. DOI: 10.1186/s12877-022-03470-0.

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