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• University of the Third Age at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, the University of South Bohemia

  45-46

  Valérie Tóthová

  Jana Šemberová

  Views:

  265

  The goal of the paper is to present almost 30 years of activities of the University of the Third Age at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, the history of which started in 1992.
  The first discipline called Care of Humans and their Health was opened by the University of South Bohemia in the academic year 1992/93. The elderly were offered an educational six-term health and social program, while three hours of direct lessons and two counseling sessions a week (“senior Thursday) were subsidized. The students had to sit for unmarked and marked examinations, and to process and defend a thesis at the end of their study. In July 1995, 28 graduates were awarded a certificate on an extramural education in a festive ceremony. The implementation of the discipline of Care of Humans and their Health confirmed that even a non—professional leisure-time education could be provided at an “academic” level. A comprehensive view of education enabled to identify areas that should be taken into consideration during the education of elderly adults. They include areas relating to computer and functional literacy, cultivation of leisure time, culture of the interpersonal mutuality, and the human being (looking for the sense of life and higher goals).
  In the course of the thirty-year history of the University of the Third Age many activities have developed and the conception has extended. The new educational subject called Man in Health, Disease and Distress was transformed into a two-stage program offering the choice of the length and type of the educational program. The option A represented the choice of an integral and topically closed discipline while the options B and C represented the choice of the educational demandingness and inclusion in the European educational program called SoLiLL: Self-Organized Learning in Later Life. Furthermore, a conception of an extending program called Quality of life in the Old Age and other programs were offered to the elderly living in our region. As a part of the project activities, the elderly were involved in the projects of Phare a Interreg IIIA. The conception of the University of the Third Age at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences of the University of South Bohemia enables the applicants to complete an integral educational program, lecture blocks/cycles with various topics, and, at the same time, a unique research program called “Golden Path” focused on the Czech-Austrian border area can be completed. The uniqueness of the educational research program is evidenced by two translated monographs called “Wallern und Wallerer (Volary a Volarští - Volary citizens and Volary)“ and „Der Goldene Steig“ (Zlatá stezka – Golden Path) by the indisputably most important expert and researcher of the Golden Path, a historian living in Bavarian Waldkirchen.

• Satisfaction with the implementation of developmental tasks in the course of life and the sense of well-being in late adulthood

  31-33

  Hanna Liberska

  Views:

  232

  Introduction
  The subject of the sense of psychological well-being in people in late adulthood and its determinants has been of great interest for several dozen years among researchers and broad social groups, including people of senior age.
  Aims
  The aim of the presented research was to explain the relationship between coping with life challenges, which are developmental tasks culturally assigned to successive periods of adult life, and the sense of well-being in the last period of life. The study also drew attention to the importance of selected socio-demographic variables for the sense of well-being of people in late adulthood, namely gender, age, level of education, family situation and material (financial) condition. In line with the positive psychology approach, these factors were expected to be of limited importance for the sense of well-being.
  Methodology
  155 people aged over 65 (late adulthood) took part in the study, 53% of whom were men and 47% of women. The author's questionnaire was used to examine satisfaction with the implementation of developmental tasks (Liberska, 2019), the Mental Wellbeing Questionnaire (L.Wojciechowska, 2008) and a questionnaire collecting basic sociodemographic data. The analysis of the research results showed significant relationships between the implementation of developmental tasks and the sense of well-being. Age of the respondents did not differentiate the sense of well-being.
  Conclusion
  People's sense of well-being in late adulthood is related to coping with developmental tasks in adult life and the current family and economic situation.
  1. the results of the statistical analysis did not show statistically significant differences between men and women in the level of psychological well-being: t (152) = -0,63, p = 0,52 (women – M = 87,25, SD = 12,73; men – M = 88,52, SD = 12).
  2. people with higher education had a higher level of the general indicator of the sense of well-being than people with secondary (Z=-2.04, p=0.041), vocational (Z=-3.52, p=0.001) and primary education (Z=-3.22, p=0.01)
  3. financial status differentiates the sense of well-being of people in late adulthood: people with good economic status have a higher sense of well-being than people with average status (Z = -3.23, p = 0.001) and below average (Z = -2.03; p = 0.043)
  4. the results of the statistical analysis showed that people with different marital status differ in the level of mental well-being: married people in late adulthood have a significantly higher level of mental well-being than widowed people (Z=-3.18, p=0.001).
  5. among the six dimensions that create mental well-being, the highest value was obtained on the self-acceptance subscale; ANOVA shows significant differences between the subscales of the sense of well-being; F= 7829,05; p< 0,001; η2=0,99).
  Generally, this result confirms the importance of self-acceptance for the general psychosocial condition of a person (see Ryff, 1989).
  References:
  Liberska, H. (2019). Żródła satysfakcji z życia w starości. W: M.Kielar-Turska (red.), Siła umysłu w starości. Starość: jak ją widzi psychologia (s. 537-552). Kraków: Akademia Ignatianum.
  Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness Is Everything or Is It? Explorations on the Meaning of Psychological Wellbeing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1069-1081; http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069
  Wojciechowska, L. (2008). Style starzenia się a subiektywny dobrostan kobiet w późnej dorosłości, studiujących na uniwersytecie trzeciego wieku. Polskie Forum Psychologiczne, 2, 106- 123.

• Spiritual care in Slovenian nursing homes: a quantitative descriptive study

  29-30

  Igor Karnjuš

  Denis Bogdan

  Mirko Prosen

  Sabina Ličen

  Views:

  244

  Introduction:
  Spiritual care is an important component of holistic care in nursing. However, health care workers are not unanimous in who is responsible for the spiritual care of patients. It is likely that nurses are best suited to provide spiritual care because of the nature of their work, which requires constant contact with patients. Yet, meeting spiritual needs is not well defined in the role of nurses and is not always taught comprehensively in formal nursing education programmes. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which nurses working in social care settings implement interventions related to spiritual care in their daily practise, how they perceive their knowledge of spiritual care, and the extent to which this dimension of care was included in their nursing education programmes.
  Methods:
  A non-experimental quantitative descriptive research study was used. In April 2020, 214 nurse assistants and registered nurses from 12 nursing homes in Slovenia participated in the study. The questionnaire used in the study included 12 statements related to 3 main areas: i) knowledge of the concepts of spirituality and religion, ii) implementation of spiritual/religious interventions in daily practice, iii) spirituality in nursing education. The individual statements were rated by the respondents on a 5-point Likert scale (1 - strongly disagree to 5 - strongly agree). The questionnaire had adequate internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.857). Data were described using calculated means, Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman correlation coefficient. A p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.
  Results:
  Regular spiritual assessment of nursing home residents is rarely performed by nurses (x̄=2.73, s=1.03). Female nurses (U=2191.500, p=0.008) and nurses who described themselves as religious (U=3314.000, p=0.001) implement spiritual/religious interventions in daily practice to a greater extent; they also expressed higher knowledge of the concepts of spirituality and religion compared to the others (religious/non-religious: U=2920.000, p=0.000; female/male: U=1885.000, p=0.000). The implementation of spiritual/religious interventions in daily practice correlated positively and statistically significantly mainly with self-perceived knowledge of the concepts of spirituality and religion (r=0.495, p=0.000) and the extent to which the content of spiritual care was represented in their nursing education program (r=0.494, p=0.000). However, nurses emphasized that the concept of spirituality and spiritual care tended to be poorly represented in formal nursing education programs (x̄=2.76, s=0.89).
  Discussion and conclusions:
  Individual characteristics, particularly self-reported religiosity and gender, appear to have an important influence on the implementation of spiritual/religious interventions in daily practise. In addition, our study suggests that the level of knowledge about the concepts of spirituality and religion influences nurses' willingness to implement spiritual care with their residents. Therefore, nursing educators need to develop curricula that include strategies to increase trainees' awareness of spiritual care. Current international research efforts on perceptions of spirituality and spiritual care in nursing offer important contributions to understanding the role of nursing in relation to spirituality and to developing educational content and approaches for both undergraduate and lifelong learning in nursing.

• Staff Training and Stress in Long Term Care Facilities Special Care Units for Alzheimer's Elders

  43-44

  S. Jean Szilagyi

  Views:

  277

  Objective:
  Special Care Units (SCU) in long term care health facilities are named to indicate "unique to diagnosis" or a level of care. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions among caregivers and licensed nurses in selected nursing homes in Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York, as they pertained to the differences in care to Alzheimer's elders in SCUs. It examined the education and experience of staff and the satisfaction of this staff as it pertained to stress and wages.

  Background:
  Long-term caregivers often experience stress, resulting in "burn-out" as a consequence of limited training, levels of care required, cognitive decline of elders and family expectations. The caregivers, on SCUs, environmentally designed for the elders with cognitive decline, need specialized training in the physical and mental dimensions of the various forms of dementia, Alzheimer's type.

  Methods:
  The study used a qualitative research design with a survey questionnaire and one-on-one interviews with administrators and human resource directors. A pilot study of SCUs in Ohio and Pennsylvania and New York was initiated. The population was the employees of these SCU. The levels of employees questioned included: Executive director/Administrator, nurses, nurse aides, housekeepers and activities staff, laundry and social service workers. The procedure was standardized to enhance the reliability of the data. The respondents were notified in advance of the specific application of their answers and were afforded the opportunity to receive a monetary donation to the SCU of their respective facilities.
  An Eden Alternative Home, with a program of goals and missions characterizing enhancement of an elder's life, a home-like environment and family-centered staff and care, in a very rural area of Pennsylvania, was also engaged to contrast and compare the hypotheses of the study.

  Results:
  On the SCU, less than 5 percent of the staff had received training specific to the care of the Alzheimer's elders. In the Eden Home, 100 percent of the staff had received training specific to the care of the Alzheimer's elders. On the SCU, less than 18 percent were satisfied with the quality and quantity of specialized and extensive training. In the Eden Home, 100 percent of the staff was satisfied with their specific training. On the SCU, using a Leiken scale, more than 55 percent felt that they should receive higher wages. In the Eden home, the results were the same. However, the longevity of the employees was 13.5 years as opposed to only 3.25 years in the SCU in other homes.

  Conclusion:
  These findings suggest there is a need to examine, expand and intensify the training of all caregivers on a special unit for the elders afflicted with dementia, Alzheimer's type.

• Are We Listening to Elders? Intergenerational Wisdom as a Protective Factor Against Bullying in Diverse Academic Spaces

  26-29

  Mariem Jebari

  Views:

  0

  Bullying remains one of the most persistent challenges in educational and academic environments, exerting a wide-ranging impact on students’ psychological well-being, physical health, and academic achievement.