Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing eNewsletter
June 2008  
Greetings!

Welcome to the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing's monthly eNewsletter featuring articles, reference materials, useful links, calendar of events and other best practice information on the care of older adults.

This eNewsletter is sponsored by ConsultGeriRN.org, the authoritative geriatric clinical nursing website of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, New York University College of Nursing and the NICHE (Nurses Improving Care for HealthSystem Elders) program, (www.nicheprogram.org). ConsultGeriRN.org contains evidence-based protocols and topics for nurses and other healthcare professionals on the care of older adults.

Do You Know Enough About Family Caregiving and Older Adults?

Did you know that family caregivers provide more than 80% of the long-term care for older adults in this country? Caregiving can be difficult, time-consuming work added on top of job and other family responsibilities. If caregivers suffer negative consequences from their caregiving role and these are not mitigated, increased morbidity and mortality may result for caregivers. Not all outcomes from caregiving are negative; there are many caregivers that report rewards from caregiving. Learn more about this topic and the resources available on the assessment and care strategies associated with Family Caregiving.

How To Try This Series

Topic Resources:
Evaluating Sleep Quality in Older Adults
  Article     Video
Videos can be watched in their entire format, or in chapters that relate to the specific assessment skills described above. Continuing education hours are also offered.
View more information about the series and topics covered.
This Month's Topic: Evaluating Sleep Quality in Older Adults
Inadequate sleep, sleep of poor quality or insufficient duration or both, has been linked to health problems ranging from cognitive impairment to compromised immunity. Insomnia occurs more frequently after age 70, and more than half of adults ages 65 and older report at least one chronic sleep complaint. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is easily used to assess the quality and patterns of sleep in older adults. It consists of 18 questions covering seven areas in which sleep problems occur and can be completed in about 10 minutes.

The How to Try This series is funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation to the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University's College of Nursing in collaboration with the American Journal of Nursing (AJN). This initiative translates the evidence-based geriatric assessment tools in the Try This Assessment Series into cost-free, web-based print and video resources, for caring for older adults. This series can be viewed, downloaded, and shared without any fees. Articles may be printed and copied for educational use without copyright fees.

You can also read more about the topic 'Sleep' on ConsultGeriRN.org.

What Nurses Are Doing About Care In Nursing Homes

Culture Change in the Nursing Home: How Far Have We Come?

Sarah Greene Burger By Sarah Greene Burger, RN-C, MPH, FAAN
Senior Advisor on Special Projects, Hartford Institute

"Picture a nursing home where you can stay up to watch the end of the ball game, get yourself a midnight snack and be assisted to bed by an aide who's gotten to know all your little quirks and enjoys listening to your stories." Dr. Mary Jane Koren used these words to describe the everyday essence of a national initiative to change the culture of a nursing home for a resident and staff. Findings of a survey of over 1,400 nursing homes showed that, while only 5% of homes had fully adopted culture change, 31% were on their way to implementing culture change; and 25% were striving in that direction.

Culture Change in Nursing Homes: How Far Have We Come? Findings from the Commonwealth Fund 2007 National Survey of Nursing Homes
 Full Report   Webinar Recording & Powerpoint Presentation

The Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Campaign reviewed in last month's e-newsletter supports culture change principals and activities. Bonnie Kantor represents the Pioneer Network on the steering committee. www.nhqualitycampaign.org

Sound Off

Mathy Mezey Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN
Professor and Director
Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing
New York University College of Nursing

In this eNewsletter we introduce a new feature, "Sound Off" which will appear from time to time to let us express "points of personal anguish" about nursing care of older adults.

In this first "Sound Off," I want to share with you one thing that troubles me; too often older adults are told "well what can you expect at age 80" or "it's not worth treating that symptom because at your age". As one example, when considering whether hypertension in very old people should be aggressively treated, the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses (PCNA) shared a report that shows that treating hypertension in patients over age 80 reduces mortality by 21% (World Congress of Cardiology, Buenos Aires, 18th May 2008).

I challenge you to search out data to help you assure that older adults you care for have the full benefit of treatments.

Calendar of Events

Save the Date

NICHE is holding its 12th Annual Conference in February 2009 at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Florida from 2/23 -2/26. The theme of the three part conference will be Patient Safety: Evidence Based Solutions for Quality Geriatric Care. Led by New York University College of Nursing Faculty Liz Capezuti, PhD, RN, FAAN and Marie Boltz, PhD, RN, the NICHE annual conference brings together both new and experienced NICHE sites to commit or re-commit to improve care to older adults. The conference is three conferences: the 2 day Leadership conference provides tools for implementing NICHE; the Best Clinical Practices focuses on cutting edge research based best nursing practices; the User conference explores innovative and practical approaches to strengthening implementation of NICHE.

Conference highlights include three outstanding nurse researchers from the nationally-recognized Patient Safety Center of Inquiry at the James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, Florida: Audrey Nelson, PhD, RN, FAAN, Patricia A. Quigley, PhD, ARNP, CRRN, Gail Powell-Cope, PhD, ARNP, FAAN

The NICHE program was developed by the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU College of Nursing to help hospitals make systemic changes in the way they care for older adults. Over 200 hospitals nationally have benefited by integrating NICHE into their facility.
View more information

Specialty Nursing Association Conferences

National Association of Directors of Nursing Administration in Long Term Care (NADONA)
June 21-25, 2008 Nashville, TN
Join NADONA for their 21st Annual conference with topics including Pain in the Frail Elder and Recognizing and Managing Hypertension in Elder Adults. With over 6000 members, NADONA/LTC is the largest educational organization committed exclusively to nursing and administration professionals in the Long Term Care and Assisted Living professions.
View more information

Wound Ostomy and Continence Nurses (WOCN)
June 21-25, 2008, Orlando, Florida
Join WOCN at its 40th Anniversary conference with top-notch and practical educational sessions targeted to all levels of wound, ostomy and continence care professionals. Sessions include Palliative Wound Care and Individualizing the Care of Patients with Dementia and Incontinence. Founded in 1968, the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN) is a professional, international nursing society of more than 4,200 healthcare professionals who are experts in the care of patients with wound, ostomy and incontinence.
View more information

Link to ConsultGeriRN.org!

We would like to hear from you!

If you have a geriatric-related story, topic or an event you would like featured in our newsletter, please send your request to editor@consultgerirn.org
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