Free Geriatric Nursing Tools Launched

[cougarnurse]

I read about these tools. Should be incorporated into practice.

The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University (NYU) College of Nursing, in collaboration with The American Journal of Nursing (AJN), launched a “How to Try This” series of free Web-based geriatric assessment tools and best practices.

The groups said the educational site at www.NursingCenter.com/AJNolderadults (click on “How to Try This”) is designed for all nursing faculty and students, particularly those in associate degree programs, as well as clinicians and other healthcare professionals, to enhance their ability to conduct a wide range of assessments on older adults in order to provide age-appropriate care.

Free articles and videos are available for viewing and downloading.

“Health conditions in older adults often look different than those in younger adults, yet few faculty or care providers outside of the geriatric specialty are prepared to conduct or teach these procedures, said Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, principal investigator, and director of The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing.

“Given the prevalence of this population, improvements in care can result in lowering healthcare costs associated with complications, admissions, or re-admissions to hospitals, prolonged length of stay or admission to nursing homes due to missed diagnoses or improper treatment.”

Based on the Hartford Institute’s “Try This” toolbox of geriatric assessment instruments, the “How To Try This” series provides knowledge of best practices in the care of older adults in a way that is easy to understand and implement. The assessment tools have been selected because of their reliability and validity and their ease of use by busy clinicians.

Using nurses, patients and their families, the new video series will demonstrate how geriatric assessments should be conducted, interpreted and communicated to plan the care for an older adult.

“The nursing workforce is ill-prepared for the special needs of older adults, especially skills to assess those aged 85 years and older,” said Diana J. Mason, PhD, RN, FAAN, co-principal investigator for the project and editor-in-chief of AJN.

“The need to provide these evidence-based resources is even more urgent in associate degree programs since, to date, other geriatric nursing initiatives have focused resources primarily on higher degree programs,” Mason continued. “Given that 63 percent of those entering the nursing workforce are graduates of associate degree nursing programs, the need to prepare the majority of new entrants in the nursing workforce is paramount.”
Terra Nova Films, a company focused on producing documentaries on older adults is collaborating with AJN to produce the videos.

Accompanying the videos is a complementary series of articles to be published in AJN and made available on the Web site. Continuing education credits are available for both the videos and articles. The project will release two articles and two videos each month for 15 months.

The first two tools are the Fulmer SPICES and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). SPICES is an mnemonic device to help clinicians evaluate geriatric patients in six areas: sleep, problems eating and feeding, incontinence, confusion, evidence of falls, and skin problems. Problems in these areas are associated with geriatric conditions that can complicate and threaten recovery and prolong the length of stay. The GDS is a quick screen for depression in older adults that can be used in any setting.