Service-Learners at Dementia Care Programs

Abstract

Service-Learning can be a rewarding and challenging experience for students. One of the rewards for students can be the connection between their course work and real life experience. However, students interacting with populations with which they have limited prior experience face unique challenges. We developed a training program designed to facilitate comfort with older adults who have dementia for service-learners in a gerontology course who were serving at an Adult Day Services (ADS) program. Students in the course completed pre- and post-surveys assessing level of contact with older adults and attitudes on aging. Service-learners serving at the ADS comprised the treatment group (n = 5) while those serving at other S-L sites made up the control group (n = 11). Independent and paired sample t-tests indicated that the training program contributed to intra-individual and group differences in comfort working with older adults and with adults who are cognitively impaired. Differences in attitudes about older adults were also identified. Implications for adult development courses involving S-L at dementia care programs are discussed.

Service-Learning with College Students toward Health-Care of Older Adults: A Systematic Review

“…We may note a disparity in both the number of students giving service and the number of elders receiving it. In terms of the former, this number of individuals ranges from 16 in the works of Fruhauf et al [14] and Singleton [15] to 509 in Hegeman et al [16]. These numbers include students from a range of degree programs, such as nursing education, psychology, physical therapy, or pharmacology.…”

“…SL can be developed embedded within a university subject or program, but it can also be proposed as an extracurricular activity. When it is part of a university curricular program, it can be implemented through projects, academic courses, workshops, or single lessons, and 23.3% of the sample (10 articles) refers to this [3,14,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24], whereas 33 articles consider SL as extra academic training in the university (76.7%). Looking at the samples of older adults, the number of people receiving service is quite variable, as are the group profiles, which can consist of healthy older adults or people suffering different illnesses or any type of social disadvantage.…”

“…The majority of papers present studies or experiences that are part of larger programs, as in the cases of Timmermans et al [24] or Lynch et al [25]. Among those articles that detail the time of service given, the most repeated was one semester [14,15,17,18,22,25,26,27,28,29,30,31] or 20 hours [32,33]. The shortest SL interventions or experiences were three hours [34], one day [35], or two clinical days [36], whereas the longest were three-year projects [3,24,37,38].…”

“…A total of 30 articles employed surveys and/or questionnaires. Specifically, there were four articles that only used standardized questionnaires [14,29,42,43], and only two that applied questionnaires to a control group [17,23], while Sookhai et al’s study [44], on the other hand, used a non-standardized questionnaire. A standardized survey is used by Faria et al [45], whereas ten articles used non-standardized surveys.…”

“…A wide range of aspects was considered, for example, Andreoletti and Howard [46], Augustin and Freshman [33], and Lokon et al [29] concentrated on the increase of students’ positive perceptions; Kohlbry and Daugherty [35] analyzed the development of their cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills; Chen [46], D’Abundo et al [27], and Giné-Garriga et al [48] observed students’ practical experience; Neill et al [43] and Neal et al [49] examined the improvement of students’ perception of professional competence; and, finally, Gazsi and Oriel [34] investigated the integration of course content through applied SL. For the rest of the sample, only four papers (9.3%) focused on aspects such as older adults’ perceptions or changes, experiences, learning, thoughts, feelings, or relationships [4,14,36,44].…”