Research shows
that empathy is a crucial skill for healthcare workers. This is particularly true for those working with older adults, whose numbers are on the rise. But what is the best way to help today’s students develop this essential skill, especially when most of them are young and healthy? We created the RealCare™ Geriatric Simulator in response to educators asking us that very question. By allowing students to walk in the shoes of older adults, this wearable aging simulator helps students develop the empathy they need to treat their future patients with care and understanding.
First-Hand Experience
This aging simulator allows students to experience age-related physical challenges, giving them an understanding of the difficulties older adults experience. It offers hands-on experience with many real-life conditions that older adults deal with daily, such as decreased sense of balance, change of body image, confusion, and more.
The simulator comes with six visual impairment glasses to simulate common visual problems, such as glaucoma, unilateral retinal detachment, and diabetic retinopathy. The simulator features a neck restraint, weighted vest, adjustable wrist weights, gloves, adjustable knee restraints, and adjustable ankle weights to replicate challenges like loss of strength and fatigue.
View this graphic to see how each piece of the simulator creates a unique, impactful experience for your students.
8-Lesson, Standards-Aligned Curriculum
The aging simulator includes the Geriatric Experience Curriculum, featuring lessons on topics such as the impact of aging on bones and joints, hearing loss, and cognitive changes. However, it’s not all negative! The final lesson, amazing aging, highlights all the great things older adults have accomplished and offers tips on how to live a longer, healthier life.
Most lessons incorporate the simulator in some way. For example, the visual impairment lesson asks you to divide the class into groups and have each group try to do simple tasks, such as reading a page out of a book and buttoning a shirt, while wearing the visual impairment glasses. Similarly, the declining mobility lesson suggests students wear all the weights while bending over to pick something up or walking up and down stairs.
This curriculum provides 10 to 15 hours of course content with presentation slides, student activities, and assessments. Aligned to the National Health Education Standards and National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education, it can be used in a variety of settings from high school and post-secondary courses to CNA training courses and in-service training for nursing home facilities.
See a complete curriculum overview here.
Career Preparation and Exploration
This aging simulator can prepare students for many health sciences and FACS careers, such as geriatric care manager, geriatric nurse practitioner, and geriatric pharmacist. The first lesson in the included curriculum helps students define geriatrics and gerontology as well as identify several related professions in the healthcare field.
Soft Skills Development
Allen College Assistant Professor Steven Bowen, OTD, OTR/L, CAPS, used this aging simulator along with the Geriatric Sensory Impairment Kit to identify how they changed students’ empathy toward older adults. He found that the simulators improved students’ empathy, promoted understanding of targeted populations, and helped students understand the struggles and benefits of aging. You can read all about Bowmen’s study here.
Similarly, Dove Healthcare, a long-term care facility in western Wisconsin, uses the Geriatric Simulator to help CNA, CBRF, and CPR students develop empathy and sensitivity toward older adults. The experience with the simulator makes an impact with statements of “Oh wow” and “I didn’t know this is what they felt like!” frequently heard when students first try it out. Watch the video below to learn more about this aging simulator from Dove Healthcare educators and students.
More Resources
- Discover more ideas for incorporating geriatric training tools into your program and teaching empathy to students on our implementation page
- See Virginia OT students use aging simulators to walk in future clients’ shoes in this customer story
- Find more ways to use aging simulators in your classroom with this blog
