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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to understand the value of using the development of a health fair in nursing education.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will recognize the importance of assessing for ageism, developing interventions to decrease ageism and evaluating those interventions in nursing education.
Significance: Most nurses will take care of older adults in their career. Contact with well elderly generally produces a more positive regard in young persons toward older adults (Ebersole, et. al., 2008). Advancing nursing education to include contact with elderly along a continuum of health is one step in decreasing ageism in nursing students. The AACN suggest clinical teaching strategies that include elders in the long term care, acute care, and in the community, they suggest using a health fair in meeting Essential II (Basic Organizational and Systems Leadership for Quality Care and Patient Safety) (AACN, 2010).
Method: The Department of Nursing at Pittsburg State University incorporates a stand-alone gerontology course in their nursing curriculum. The course faculty tackle ageism by assisting nursing students to develop a health fair for a local older adult club called Personal Action to Health (PATH). At the health fair held in the nursing department building, nursing students give short oral presentations, develop and display posters, and answer participants questions. Examples of presentations include ways to exercise the mind, and the benefits of eating foods that contain antioxidants. Students also offer blood pressures checks, give out door prizes and serve refreshments. The health fair gives older adults and nursing students a chance to interact, learn from each other and develop positive relationships with each other.