Geropsychiatric nursing: essential curriculum content.

1. An incremental model should be used to determine what geropsychiatric content belongs at each level of educational programs in nursing. 2. Identifying teaching methods that will enable students to learn knowledge retrieval, management, and use skills--as well as to develop critical thinking and ethical decision making abilities--will become more important than identifying essential content. 3. With the increased emphasis on cost-effective primary care and autonomous role functioning within interdisciplinary teams, we must move toward an advanced practice role that combines attributes of the clinical specialist and nurse practitioner.