Ear Irrigation To The Elderly : Educational Video For Degree Nursing Students

Abstract

Aging is characterized with natural deterioration in the physiological functions of the elderly. One of the most common conditions attributed to aging is hearing impairment. It has been established that individuals often seeking care for hearing problems are mostly diagnosed with cerumen impaction, and the elderly are among the highest population. This affects the general wellbeing of the elderly population. This condition aggravates communication difficulties, increases loneliness due to social isolation, affects mental wellbeing and even may result to immobility. Cerumen impaction can be removed by mechanical means through ear irrigation. Thus, knowledge of ear infections and ear irrigation skills are vital for caring for the elderly. It is the responsibility of nurses to possess the required knowledge and skills for care of common diseases suffered by the elderly. Teaching nursing students these psychomotor skills have become necessary.

Nursing education entails the learning of clinical skills that are applied in real clinical settings by nursing students. To achieve this, nursing educators have developed different methods to teach students psychomotor skills required for nursing interventions. Combining the use of technology with traditional mode of teaching has enhanced learning. The use of instructional videos in teaching or learning of nursing skills have proven to be a viable method for improving psychomotor skills. Videos have been found to enhance the psychomotor learning of nursing students, as they help relate theory to practice. Therefore, teaching students the process of ear irrigation by means of an instructional video, would enhance their knowledge about the indications for ear irrigation and impact the skills to perform the procedure. This thesis was aimed at creating an instructive educational video for international nursing students on the procedure for performing ear irrigation. The purpose was towards increasing international Nursing students’ knowledge on ear irrigation, and to fill the current gap in audio-visual nursing education on ear irrigation in the elderly in Finland. The result of the project implementation showed that majority of the students found the instructional video to be informative and suitable for learning ear irrigation procedure.

Keywords: Ear Irrigation, Nursing student, Elderly people,