Nursing care focused on the elderly due to the increase in life expectancy worldwide requires an update in the curricula to meet the needs of the environment. The objective of the present study was to determine the teaching-learning process in undergraduate courses at Ecuadorian universities for the care of older adults. The study plans are described; to characterize and discuss the teaching of gerontological care from the social representations of authorities and teachers involved and to propose a conceptual design to guide the gerontological training of nursing students. The treatment of the information was developed through the ALCESTE program, considering the process approach of Moscovici and Jodelet’s social representations, by means of a semi-structured indepth interview with the directors and teachers who teach the contents of care for the elderly. According to the software analysis in the dendogram, two blocks were determined with 6 relevant lexical classes that determined the relationship of the knowledge of those investigated on nursing education for the care of the elderly. The curricula of the Ecuadorian universities of undergraduate nursing are heterogeneous when considering the teaching of gerontological care, so it is necessary to unify training criteria; authorities and teachers are aware that the life expectancy of the population worldwide is increasing, so it is necessary to train specialists in the care of care focused on the elderly. © 2022, Instituto de Investigaciones Clinicas. All rights reserved.