The biography project: Student learning outcomes in aged care life narrative placements

ABSTRACT

Australia’s Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has reported abuses, neglect and a level of systemic apathy and unwillingness to innovate across the nation’s aged care sector. Isolation and loneliness stand out as the sector’s two most pernicious problems which the current pandemic has only exacerbated. To attempt to ameliorate the situation, the author created a fieldwork intervention that puts undergraduate students into aged care facilities to work with residents on discussing, transcribing, editing and publishing the resident’s biography. The “Biography Project” provides much needed contact and connection for residents but also touches on the quality of relationships with family, friends and care staff and supports intergenerational connections for undergraduate students. The article describes the project and its outcomes for students in the hopes of providing a model for geriatric education that could be implemented elsewhere.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical humanities
• biography
• reminiscence theory
• aged care
• life story
• isolation
• loneliness

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank my partner Jamey Carson for his kind support and insight; Carmel Williams, AO my teaching colleague; Dr. Niru Nirthanan; Esme Strydom; Sonia Kovac and the three anonymous referees for their helpful critiques and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.