Björn Bouwmeester Stjernetun

Doctoral Student
Research School of Health and Welfare , School of Health and Welfare

About me:

Registered nurse (RN) with specialization towards psychiatric care. Lecturer in nursing at the University of Skövde since 2018. Admitted to the PhD program at Jönköping University in February of 2022. 

The research project:

Previous research show that undergraduate nursing students as well as registered nurses hold stereotype attitudes towards older persons and lack interest in geriatric nursing. At the same time the worldwide population grows older and increasingly more people live with complex heath problems. The nurse if often the key figure in the care of these patients. This poses a problem as there is a global nurse shortage and academia must recruit more nursing students. The overall aim is to study age suit simulation in nursing students perspectives on older persons, ageing, living with common health problems and caring for older persons. During the second year of their education nursing students go through an intervention with age suit simulation which allows for an “embodied learning experience”. The age suit can simulate conditions such as arteritis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, various eye diseases and hear impairment. Each student is assigned a “persona” detailing what health problems they will experience. Then they go through the simulations whoch involve undertaking common tasks in a home like environment at Skaraborgs Health Technology Center (SHC). The apartment at SHC is equipped with various well fare technologies and aids who´s purpose is to support persons with disabilities. During the simulations the participants interact with this technology. By this kind of “point of view” simulations the participants get a glimpse of how it is like living with these kinds of impairments and it´s effect on everyday tasks. Data is collected thought the entire nursing program from year 1 to 1 year after graduation. The idea is to study the effect of the intervention as well as the durability of the intervention over time. Both quantitative and qualitative method will be applied. 

Article

Bouwmeester Stjernetun, B., Hallgren, J., Gillsjö, C. (2024). Effects of an age suit simulation on nursing students' perspectives on providing care to older persons: an education intervention study Educational gerontology, 50(3), 240-253. More information
Bouwmeester Stjernetun, B., Gillsjö, C., Odzakovic, E., Hallgren, J. (2024). ”It´s like walking in a bubble”, nursing students´ perspectives on age suit simulation in a home environment – group interviews from reflection seminars BMC Nursing, 23. More information