Faculty create innovative educational resources for the Minnesota North Star Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program

^{Kristine Talley and Kathleen Krichbaum}

The Minnesota North Star Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) is a five year, $3.74 million project funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. In collaboration with key partners in the geriatrics field, the goals of the Minnesota North Star GWEP is to provide greater access to community education in aging and dementia, improve geriatrics training in health professions, and transform primary care clinical training and practice sites to provide age-friendly care. This interdisciplinary initiative is co-directed by James Pacala, MD, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Joseph Gaugler, PhD, School of Public Health, and Kristine Talley, PhD, APRN, GNP-BC, FGSA, School of Nursing.

Faculty from the School of Nursing have been engaged in the development of a number of innovative education resources designed for educators to teach age friendly care. Talley oversees the Age-Friendly Care and Education Collection, which is a curated and fully searchable online repository of educational, clinical, and research resources for educators, health professionals, learners, and others interested in improving care for older adults. This highly accessed and impactful resource contains over 900 existing geriatric educational resources. Talley also created an online tool kit to teach learners how to assess, treat, and educate older adults about urinary incontinence.

Talley is also leading the highly successful annual inter-University Interprofessional Geriatric Case Competition proving a unique opportunity for health professional students to develop a comprehensive, interprofessional plan of care for an older adult. This successful educational competition is a collaboration between St. Louis University and the University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota competition hosted 90 students, 16 faculty and 23 community experts.

School of Nursing Professor Kathleen Krichbaum, PhD, RN, ANEF, FGSA, FAAN, developed a creative toolkit to provide instructors with ideas, examples and guidelines to design interactive lectures on geriatrics with alternative learning techniques. A series of GeriPreceptor Tipsheets provide up-to-date, concise resources for teaching specific geriatric care content, as well as teaching tips to engage health professional students in practice settings.

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These innovative digital activities for learners and resources for educators are freely available and easily accessed on their website https://mngwep.nexusipe.org.