Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jun 21;21(1):160.
doi: 10.1186/s12912-022-00936-9.

"We are never taught anything about the elderly." Establishing the gap in elderly health care competencies in nursing education in Uganda

Faith Nawagi  1 , John Mukisa  2 , Josephine Nambi Najjuma  3 , Rose C Nabirye  4
Affiliations

"We are never taught anything about the elderly." Establishing the gap in elderly health care competencies in nursing education in Uganda

Faith Nawagi et al. BMC Nurs. .

Abstract

Background: Nurses contribute the largest portion of Uganda's health workforce providing care to individuals of all ages and communities. However, despite the growing number of the elderly population in Uganda with improved life expectancy, there is hardly any study that has looked at the elderly health care competencies in the nursing training programs at various levels. This paper provides an overview of the gaps in elderly health care competencies in nursing education in Uganda.

Methods: We conducted a descriptive qualitative cross-sectional study that involved document review, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) with nursing leaders, and Focus Group Discussions ( FGDs) with faculty at all levels of nursing training and nurses in practice. Data was analyzed using latent and manifest content analysis with Open Code software 4.03. Common categories were identified and incorporated into a matrix to create themes.

Results: Almost all the curricula and minimum standards for training nurses at certificate, diploma, and degree levels lack a module and nursing competencies on elderly nursing care. This is aggravated by a lack of faculty trained in elderly health care skills, and a lack of specialized wards for nursing elderly care clinical training among others.

Conclusions: There is hardly any elderly health care training module and elderly nursing competencies at all levels of nursing training in Uganda.

Keywords: Competencies; Elderly health care; Nursing; Training; Uganda.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Pie chart showing the distribution of study participants by region
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Nawagi F, Söderberg M, Berggren V, Midlöv P, Ajambo A, Nakasujja N. Sociodemographic Characteristics and Health Profile of the Elderly Seeking Health Care in Kampala. Uganda Current Gerontology and Geriatrics Research. 2018;2018:e4147509. - PMC - PubMed
    1. United Nations D of E and SA Population Division . World Population Ageing Highlights. 2019.
    1. WHO. Ageing. WHO | Regional Office for Africa. 2021. https://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/ageing. Accessed 5 Apr 2022.
    1. Salami D, Shaaban AN, do Oliveira Martins MR. Africa Rising, a Narrative for Life Expectancy Gains? Evidence from a Health Production Function. Ann Glob Health. 2019;85:63. doi: 10.5334/aogh.2307. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. MOLSD U. The State of Older Persons in Uganda. Situational analysis report. Ministry of Labour and Social Development Uganda; 2020.

LinkOut - more resources