Kathleen Thimsen has found a way to provide an unforgettable learning experience for her nursing students while addressing a critical need in the community: better care for an aging population.
A forensic nurse and associate professor-in-residence at the UNLV School of Nursing, Thimsen develops her curriculum to provide future nurses with insights into social determinants of health and how they impact the quality of life. “Students also needed experience with teaching health education topics to patients and families,” she said.
She also knew there is a tremendous need in the Southern Nevada workforce for qualified caregivers for an aging population, a gap her students could address.
Thimsen developed The Caregiver Program and partnered with Cleveland Clinic Nevada to implement it. The program trains undergraduate nursing students to become educators, who then teach community members to become professional caregivers.
While UNLV provides academic leadership and student instructors, Cleveland Clinic Nevada supports recruitment of caregiver trainees, logistics, and additional training resources.
Since spring 2025, the nursing students have trained more than 70 participants of the program to be caregivers. Most are now working in caregiving jobs and some have gone on to pursue higher education degrees themselves.
The program has been so successful — for both current nursing students and their new trainees — that Thimsen earned UNLV’s 2026 Service-Learning Faculty Award.
The Caregiver Program
The Caregiver Program grew from Thimsen’s earlier work training nursing students to support new moms and families in public housing in St. Louis. There she found that older members of the multigenerational families needed help staying in their own homes, but they often lacked access to trained caregivers.
In Las Vegas, she found a similar problem. Her research showed that there were over 1,400 reported cases of elder abuse and neglect in the community. Nearly 57 percent of the cases were not intentional, but rather the result of knowledge and skills deficits among caregivers.
The Caregiver Program she developed starts by training UNLV nursing students over seven weeks on how to teach caregiving skills to others. The nursing students then lead their own three-day course for local community members who wish to become caregivers for their loved ones or for other adults in need of care.
The nursing students cover critical content such as hygiene, vital signs, mobility, safety risks, and the management of common diagnoses, including diabetes, asthma, and dementia. Additional instruction includes CPR certification and specialized education on the “three D’s” of elder care—dementia, delirium, and depression—delivered in partnership with Cleveland Clinic Nevada.
“Beyond the numbers, the impact is deeply human,” said Kate Ingalsby, a program manager of education at the Cleveland Clinic Nevada.
She noted that the program directly addresses a critical workforce gap while supporting older adults who wish to age safely and comfortably in place. “These [newly trained caregivers] come from diverse and often underserved backgrounds, many have not had access to clear workforce or career pathways.”
At the end of each course, the trainees are celebrated with a graduation ceremony and receive a pair of scrubs, a stethoscope, and a training completion certificate that qualifies them to find caregiving jobs in Nevada. After completing the course, about 94 percent of the program’s graduates secured a job within 30 days.
Students Expand the Program
The program provides nursing students with a unique experience outside of its typical clinical setting. By mentoring community members one-on-one, students deepen their clinical knowledge while developing essential communication and cultural humility skills.
During one semester of the course, the nursing students discovered a language barrier and translated the entire course into Spanish, ensuring that all students were able to receive the training.
“When the students told me they had translated the content and would be providing interpretation for the course, my heart was full of joy,” Thimsen said. “I thought, ‘they identified a need and created an intervention aimed at the population.’ It was a moment of gratefulness and joy.
“It also speaks to the tremendous work of our faculty reflected in the students, demonstrating the contribution and influence of our faculty on their learning and practice. What a gift!”
Better Trained Nurses
The nursing students have indicated that the opportunity to teach others builds confidence in their own knowledge and helps them be more accurate and aligned with how nursing faculty taught them to perform skills, Thimsen said.
The initiative also demonstrates how research can translate into solutions, strengthening ties between the university and the community.
“The service-learning impact on nursing students assigned to this group each semester is transformative. Dr. Thimsen guides them as they transition from students to mentors, working one-on-one with community members,” said Minnie Wood, senior lecturer and clinical coordinator in the School of Nursing. “Through this process, our students do not merely learn about the culture of caring in a textbook, they actively foster it.”
About the Community Engagement Awards
The UNLV Office of Government and Community Engagement administers annual awards that recognize students, staff, and faculty for their exceptional Carnegie-defined academic community engagement in the areas of service-learning, community-based research, faculty/staff community outreach activity, and student service. Learn more about the Community Engagement Awards.
