Dr Kasia Bail – Professor of Gerontological Nursing, University of Canberra: So, we're here at Jindalee in Canberra where we've got students working with nurses and clinical facilitators to have a positive experience working with older people on site.
Eliza Stewart – Clinical Liaison Nurse, University of Canberra: So, the CPOP program is Clinical Placement with Older People.
Gina Casey – Jindalee Residential Aged Care resident: I'm Gina Casey I'm one of the residents here. Traditionally we've had a shortage of nurses. Engaging them so that they stay fresh and, in the industry, as opposed to just being left on their own I think is a really important part of this process.
Marcus Goh – Nursing student, University of Canberra: Well, the CPOP program widened my experience um because I've had an age care experience in the hospital setting, so being in a residence setting really does give me a refreshing experience.
Anita Paudel – Jindalee Clinical Care Manager: Before like I used to get a lot of students saying like you know I want to start my career working in the hospital, but they have changed their concept now like maybe they have been you know more open to the care that we have been providing to our residents.
Stewart: Age care is relevant to all nurses and all nursing students, and I think it's really valid for everyone to have a good understanding of what it is to be in the field of geriatric nursing to develop an understanding of the complexity of care and also the depth of knowledge that nurses who are in the aged care residential or ward care require.
Goh: In the hospital we get allocated like different patients every day but as opposed to residents, they're always here. So, every day you come to work you see the same uh patients, so you build the same amount of uh rapport over time as opposed to hospital settings.
Paudel: It's also about complex care like catheters epileptic seizures some stomas and we provide a palliative care to the resident who have entered to us in the terminal phase so yeah, they're really getting this experience in this journey. With the wound care we take the student nurse along with the register nurse because they have to be supervised all the time, we just don't leave the students on their own.
[Music]
Stewart: A lot of them walk away um after the program with a whole new appreciation of what it is to be an age care nurse and working within the field and they build really lovely therapeutic relationships with not only the nurses but the residents.
Bail: People as they get older have been themselves for longer and so their choices and preferences and ways of living needs to be supported as they might develop complex and chronic illnesses and nurses have got the skill sets and the knowledge about those different kind of complex comorbidities: dementia, delirium, cancers, different kinds of care needs – that's what our nursing students need to be learning and be ready to provide as we go forward into the brave new world.
[Music]