Supporting Family Caregivers: Nursing Students as Respite Providers Toolkit and Video

To address a key need of caregivers, Rhode Island Office of Healthy Aging implemented a workforce development initiative through its Lifespan Respite grant to match student nurses with low to moderate income families who have no access to subsidized respite care. This model provides free respite care with an increased supply of volunteer respite providers and offers important hands on experience for nursing students approaching career field entry.

This toolkit is designed to assist interested nursing programs in replicating a similar respite clinical experience program. We share information about curriculum developed at each of
the four participating nursing programs, models for organizing the clinical placement of nursing students as respite providers, and lessons learned. Also provided are nursing program and respite referral resources, as well as evaluation materials.

See the Flyer for the program and a sample news article.

Watch the video on CareBreaks – Nursing Students as Respite Providers.

Listen to the podcast Podcast 2 – Respite is a contact sport, not a spectator sport to learn more about the program.