PROCESS

First, you will be assigned as one of a team of 3 students who are portraying nurses on a gerontological inpatient unit. You will pick one of three expert roles within the team.

• Clinical practice expert – the team member who serves as the clinical practice, evidence-based guidelines expert.
• Diversity expert – the team member who serves as the cultural, ethnic, and diversity expert.
• Patient education expert – the team member who serves as the patient education expert.

Once you've selected an expert role to play, you may pursue your role individually until you have collected the information needed to prepare the materials as a team for completion of this task. You are encouraged to share the resources you accumulate during your search with your team members, as this will facilitate completion of the group patient education materials and PowerPoint presentation. Here are the individual components of each expert role:

Clinical Practice Expert – Using journal articles and web resources, research the clinical aspects of medication safety. Answer the following questions. Your answers should be of sufficient detail – somewhere between 4 to 8 sentences in length – and should be documented on the web page that will be made available for your team.

1. What is the current evidence that determines safe medication administration?
2. What does the research say about the frequency of medication errors in the clinical practice setting?
3. How can medication safety be continued in the home setting?

Diversity Expert – Using journal articles and web resources, research the cultural/ethnic views of the confused elderly patient. Answer the following questions. Your answers should be of sufficient detail – somewhere between 4 to 8 sentences in length – and should be documented on the web page that will be made available for your team.

1. What organizations and individuals have been at the forefront of exploring cultural implications of the elderly population?
2. Describe the state-of-the-knowledge of which elderly groups have more medication safety issues.
3. Describe the findings of research articles in relation to elderly patient medication safety.

Patient Education Expert – Using journal articles and web resources, research the patient education aspects of medication safety. Answer the following questions. Your answers should be of sufficient detail – somewhere between 4 to 8 sentences in length – and should be documented on the web page that will be made available for your team.

1. Which organizations have established medication safety standards?
2. Describe the manner in which patient education materials can be distributed to elderly caregivers.
3. Discuss important issues regarding patient and caregiver mental and physical limitations.

Organizing Information As You Go

Type your individual role questions into a Microsoft Word document so that you can add information to them as you explore journal articles and websites.

Keep your desired products in sight and organize your work around these things:

• Individual answers to the three questions based on your role
• Individual 2-3 relevant and high quality journal articles in APA format
• Individual 2-3 relevant and high quality web resources in APA format
• Group patient education handout/brochure
• Group Microsoft PowerPoint presentation for colleagues

Visit the RESOURCES section next to view some web, library, and collaboration resources that will launch you in completing your task!