Nursing 370 was a short one credit class that was aimed to teach nursing students more about the geriatric, or elderly, population. I took NURS 370 my junior year during the spring semester and it was interesting because I had already been to clinicals with this patient population where I was able to work with them first hand. This quick class provided me with so much information that I did not yet know about the geriatric patient. Throughout the class we had assignments to do where we had to pick an elderly person to interview. I was able to interview my 75-year-old grandmother for this project. Then at the end of the semester we put all of our combined information into two papers. This was very helpful in putting the pieces together as we learned about the elderly population.
For the honors enhancement, me and two other students were able to work together to use what we had learned in this class and research it in the real world setting. It was very interesting to get to do this project during COVID-19. Our assignment was to research Piedmont Senior Resources (PSR) in Farmville, Virginia and interview somebody who works there. The purpose of this project was to determine how COVID-19 has affected the elderly population in Farmville. I had volunteered with the honors college at Piedmont Senior Resources before so it was interesting to look deeper into what services they provide to the community after learning so much about it this patient population in class. After conducting our interview we found that many elderly people were more isolated and lonely than ever. However, PSR was making tremendous strides to incorporate social distancing and safety measures to still be able to provide services to their clients. Overall, I really enjoyed getting to work with my classmates to research this facility that provides seniors with so many services that help them fulfill their daily lives.
Below is a couple slides from our final PowerPoint that discusses our findings after interviewing Jordan Miles, who works as the Director of Nutrition and Transportation at Piedmont Senior Resources.