Developing a Healthy Aging Teaching Curriculum Model

There is a shortage of health professions (HP) trained in geriatrics including HA concepts, interprofessional education (IPE), and interprofessional team (IPT) approaches to meet the needs of the growing number of older adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC). In order to address this problem, this study aims to: 1) understand the factors affecting HA teaching curriculum including the IPE curriculum development and implementation; 2) develop a HA teaching curriculum model for HP based on the literature review, as an assessment tool, including a document review template; 3) apply this HA teaching curriculum model to two previous Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) cohorts of the program to assess HA teaching curriculum strengths and gaps in the program. In addition, assess the utility of the tool, if it is helpful and easy to use with available program documents to see overall patterns across a program compared to what is recommended based on current literature; and 4) based on the findings of this study, make recommendations to improve the design of the HA teaching curriculum model for HP. This study used a descriptive research design using the deductive content analysis method to answer the main study question and subquestions to accomplish the purposes of this study. The findings of this study support the constructs within the HA teaching curriculum conceptual model including the IPE content developed from the consensus evidence-based literature review. These constructs are indeed relevant, applicable to all HP, and recommended as a HA teaching curriculum model for HP. In addition, the study developed a template based on this HA teaching curriculum model as an assessment tool, and applied it to two previous GACA cohorts to assess the program to identify strengths and gaps of the program. Using a HA teaching curriculum model as an assessment tool allowed a systematic investigation of the GACA program. This study’s findings show this tool is fully operationalized in detail and simple to use. It is recommended as a tool for self-assessment of a program and for continuous quality improvement of HA teaching curricula for HP.