A Day in the Life of an Academic Geriatric Nurse
Melissa Aselage, MSN, RN, FNP-BC
Doctoral Candidate
Medical University of South Carolina
College of Nursing
Full-time Lecturer
University of North Carolina
Wilmington School of Nursing
Wilmington, North Carolina
Pre-doctoral Scholar 2009-2011
Research: Techniques to help nursing home staff manage meal time behaviors in residents with dementia
Because nursing students often have preconceived notions about gerontological nursing, Melissa Aselage, MSN, RN, FNP-BC, begins teaching her gerontology course by telling her own story. “In nursing school I was one of those students who said I don’t want to work with older adults and I’ll never work in a nursing home,” she says. Fate intervened. The first job offer Ms. Aselage received after graduation was from a nursing home. “I fell in love with it and thus began my career in geriatric nursing,” she says.
Ms. Melissa Aselage
Melissa Aselage inspires students to choose a career in geriatric nursing.
After obtaining a master’s degree, Ms. Aselage worked as a nurse practitioner in the nursing home. When the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), began offering a stand-alone gerontology course, she moved from clinical practice to teaching. “I wanted to capture students at the very beginning of their careers and get them excited about taking care of older adults and teach them best practices,” she says.
“I wanted to capture students at the very beginning of their careers and get them excited about taking care of older adults and teach them best practices.”As she moved further into academic nursing (now completing a doctoral degree), Ms. Aselage attended a Hartford-funded national faculty development institute—the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium offered by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. This institute provided geriatric content for nurse faculty to bring back to their academic institutions to infuse into the nursing curriculum. While struggling to accomplish this at UNCW where she is one of two faculty members with geriatric expertise, Ms. Aselage came up with a high-tech solution. She developed modules taken directly from the conference and created podcasts for students.
In April 2010, nine of these gero nursing podcasts, including the popular “Atypical Presentation in Older Adults with Complex Illness,” were made available on the Internet. They have been accessed more than 2,700 times from 16 countries. (http://consultgerirn.org/resources/gnec_podcasts)
Ms. Aselage in the Cypress Pointe Rehabilitation and Health Center, in Wilmington, NC, where she is conducting training sessions to show staff the proper technique for feeding an older person with dementia.
Podcasts with geriatric nursing instruction created by Ms. Aselage are available for students to download from the Internet. 
Nursing students listen to a podcast on geriatric nursing. 
Ms. Aselage with advanced practice nursing students at the Cypress Pointe Rehabilitation and Health Center in Wilmington, NC. The students gain clinical experience in a nursing home setting. Hilaire Thompson, PhD, RN, CNRN ›