Pre-Conference Institutes

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March 5, 2013

Pre-Conference Institutes

Register for an instructional pre-conference institute, offerring specialized training around focused areas. Pre-Conference Institutes take place on Thursday, February 28 from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm with the exception of three listed below. Pre-Conference Institutes are $60 for AGHE members, $120 for non-members and $40 for students/retirees unless otherwise noted*. This year we are pleased to introduce the following; to register, please visit registration.

End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) Geriatric Curriculum (10:00 am - 6:00 pm; Lunch included)
This workshop addresses the needs of geriatric patients’ facing-life-threatening illness, as well as the special needs of patients and families facing the end-of-life across various geriatric setting. This curriculum offers support to geriatric providers who help geriatric patients’ nursing home residents and their families with the many physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs that they may encounter. This training offers a curriculum to Geriatric Nurses and other geriatric providers of care that are serving in clinical, education and research and administrative roles.

Third Annual Teaching Institute: Getting Students Interested in Learning About Aging
Five past distinguished AGHE teachers will lead participants through this interactive “hands on” teaching institute. The foci of this year’s institute were chosen based on areas selected by AGHE representatives via an online survey asking them what teaching challenges they would like to learn more about. The workshop will begin with participants being divided into groups using team building activities followed by a series of mini-workshops. These workshops will include the following topics: How can you get students interested in learning about aging? How can you get students interested in learning about aging when the course is an online course? How can experiential learning get students interested in aging? How can you get students interested in aging when they are part of a large classroom? The institute will also ask each group to address the following problems/dilemmas and share back with the larger group: lack of student preparation; lack of student interest in aging; lack of student interest in general; and working with diverse student populations. The institute will end by asking participants to share their current teaching challenges.

Grant Writing Clinic
The prospect of writing and submitting a grant can be daunting, especially for those new to the process. The purpose of this institute is to provide support for persons with limited experience in the process of developing a grant. We will adopt a “hands on” approach that will allow participants to receive feedback and advice on a draft of their proposal or proposal idea. Following an illustrated discussion of the characteristics of successful proposals, participants will be assigned to one of four working groups in which an experienced and successful grant writer will focus on their specific proposal or proposal idea. Topics to be covered will include developing clearly articulated and unambiguous specific aims, preparing material on the background and significance of the project, developing and presenting an appropriate methodology and analysis plan or program assessment strategy, and writing a compelling abstract. Participants are encouraged to pre-submit a draft of their proposal for review by the faculty. Attendance at this institute will be limited to 16 registrants to ensure that adequate attention is given to each participant.

Workforce Development for an Aging Society: Cultivating Champions at Community Colleges*
Increasingly, older adult and active aging programs, family caregiver training, entry level paraprofessional workshops, and gerontology certificate and degree programs will be in greater demand. Community colleges which are affordable, practically-oriented, and accessible are ideal locations for a variety of these gerontological education programs. How to actually get started, however, in this process may be daunting. To this end, this pre-conference institute will provide an overview of trends, discuss various approaches, and explore best practices. The program will provide attendees with the information they need to fully evaluate the opportunity of creating new degree, certificate, workforce training and/or community outreach programs in aging related fields at their institutions. In addition to learning how to set up various courses of study and/or programming, attendees will have an instant peer group of colleagues to network with. After attending this program, participants will be able to: 1) list and describe the demographic and economic imperative driving the need to develop a larger and more skilled workforce to serve the aging population; 2) identify a sampling of best practice aging-related degree, specialty and career pathway certificates, short-term workforce training, and active aging community outreach programs that could be developed at their institution; 3) describe resources available through the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) to support their endeavors; and 4) prepare a plan of action for advocating for the development of new aging-related degrees, specialty and career pathway certificates, short-term workforce training, and active aging community outreach programs. Special rate of $25 for AGHE members, $50 for non-members and $0 for students/retirees.

Comprehensive Training for Program of Merit Pre-Approved Reviewers* (1:00 pm - 3:00 pm)
Interested in being trained or brushing up on your training as an AGHE Program of Merit reviewer? A panel of experienced Program of Merit reviewers will take participants through the process. AGHE’s standards and guidelines and core principles and outcomes will be discussed; the POM application and self-study report will be reviewed in-depth with evaluation content and recommendations; and the protocols and processes for reviews including timelines, evaluation, recommendations, and report writing will aid in operationalizing the POM review process. Experienced reviewers will share their insights and answer questions from new reviewers. This session is available to current reviewers and newly approved reviewers. There will be no charge for this workshop.

Practical Assistance for the Program of Merit Application Process* (3:00 pm - 5:00 pm)

At a time in education when it is important for programs at colleges and universities to be productive in teaching, student recruitment, and income generation, the AGHE Program of Merit review process can aid in advancing gerontology/geriatrics programs. The Program of Merit has expanded its review process beyond Gerontology programs at Community Colleges and 4-year Colleges and Universities; now Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and any Health Professions program may apply for Program of Merit status – your institution need not be an AGHE member to apply. The POM designation provides gerontology programs and those health disciplines that include geriatrics/gerontology content in the curriculum with an AGHE “stamp of approval” which can be used to verify program quality to administrators, to lobby for additional resources, to maintain a quality program, to market the program, and to recruit prospective students into the program. This session will begin with the “Why,” “What” and “How” of applying for Program of Merit and then provide time for small group consultation regarding the Program of Merit application. Preparation of the self-study document will be detailed by the experienced panel members followed by the review process and timelines required for the completed application process prior to, during and after submission. There will be no charge for this workshop.

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