Training Module Development for the Health Promotion of Older Persons in the Philippines

Purpose:

           The study aimed to develop a training module for the health promotion of older persons in the Philippines. The training module is intended to guide nurses in creating meaningful, focused and structured activities for the older persons attending adult day care programs in Senior Centers.

Methods:

            The study used the mixed method design that combined qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative part is an intervention research involving the demographic profiling, assessment & re-assessment of quality of life using the World Health Organization (WHO)-Quality of Life Tool (QOL) for community dwelling Filipino older persons, development of a training module, implementation of the module during the training of nurses, and pilot testing of the training module for the health promotion of older persons.

            The study protocol was subjected for approval from the University of the Philippines Manila Research Ethics Board (UPMREB) and was given an expedited review of four months by Review Panel 2. The actions and recommendations of the Research Ethics Board were facilitated through the consensus of expert panel members. The investigator also procured permission from the partner institution, Manila Department of Social Welfare Drop-In Center for Senior Citizens. The permission to use the WHO quality of life tool in ambulatory community-dwelling Filipino older persons was sought from the author (de la Vega, 2005) who did the cultural validation of the instrument and permission was granted.

Results:

            The training module was derived from the needs assessment of Filipino older persons, their profiling, quality of life assessment, perception of senior citizen’s center services, and literature reviews. Discussions of meaning-based nursing care were included in the module based from a previous study of the investigator.

           A two-day training of nurses guided by the module included training sessions/lecture discussions, structuring programs for a nurse-managed adult day care, presentation of activity plans in the adult day care program, brainstorming of ideas, and tasking of nursing activities for the program. The nurses have written a positive feedback on the use of the training module. The study has showcased the unique contribution of nurses in addressing the health care needs of older persons and in facilitating their over-all wellness.

Conclusion:

            The study gave evidences to the ability of nurses to do health promotion activities for older persons based on the developed training module. Thus, the study also recommends the use of the module to prescribe guidelines in the conduct of adult day care programs and services.