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Volume
2, Issue 1
September 21, 2004
Welcome
to New Directions, a publication of the Hartford Geriatric
Nursing Initiative (HGNI). This e-newsletter is designed to
inform interested academic and practice leaders, faculty members,
students, practitioners and others about the work of the HGNI and
provide the latest news and information relevant to geriatric nursing.
As many of you know, the HGNI is preparing professional nurses to
play leadership roles in improving the health of older adults. In
partnership with the nation's nursing schools and a variety of health
care organizations and systems, this dynamic, national initiative,
supported through a $38 million investment from the John A. Hartford
Foundation, works in five areas, including:
Shaping nursing practice to best meet the health care
needs of older adults;
Enhancing professional education to ensure all nurses
are prepared to treat older patients;
Promoting research needed to guide the care and promote
the health of older people;
Developing leadership in academic and professional settings;
and
Demonstrating nursing's commitment to enacting public policy
that improves older Americans' health care.
We are proud to represent this critically needed effort, which
is involving the nation's top nursesincluding youin
making a difference in the health care of our nation's older adults.
If you would like more contact information about, and links to
all of the programs of the HGNI, please see the HGNI's Evaluation
Web site at www.geriatricnursing.info.
In
this Issue
1. Washington State Residents and Ombudsman Sue Government
Over Feeding Assistants
2. HGNI Launces New Web Site
3. Announcements
4. Tools, Resources and Opportunities
5. HGNI People
6. HGNI Link of the Month-GeroNurseOnline
1.
Washington State Residents and Ombudsman Sue Government Over
Feeding Assistants
The National Senior Citizens Law Center has announced that the
Resident Councils of Washington and the Washington State Ombudsman
Program has filed a suit in federal district court in Seattle
charging that the federal government's feeding assistant regulations
violate the Nursing Home Reform Act. The regulations, which ANA
and other patient advocacy groups objected to in comments filed
with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2002, allow
nursing homes to use paid workers who do not meet minimum training
requirements for nursing services to assist residents with eating.
The regulations also allow minimal supervision of feeding assistants
and do not prohibit nursing homes from using them to displace
certified nursing assistants.
http://www.capitolupdate.org/Newsletter/index.asp?nlid=135&nlaid=445.
2.
HGNI Launches New Web Site
The HGNI is pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new
Web site, www.HGNI.org. The
site significantly expands the reach of the HGNI and provides
a vehicle for sharing information among the HGNI partner organizations,
nursing professionals and others interested in the field of geriatric
nursing. The site includes information about the HGNI partners
and programs, a calendar of events, resource information, back
issues of New Directions, and more. Please visit the site at:
www.HGNI.org. Feedback and
comments about the site are welcome and should be sent to jbeilenson@aboutscp.com.
3.
Announcements
Baccaluareate Conference
Please join us for the AACN Baccalaureate Conference, November
11-13, 2004 in Florida. This year's conference, Fortifying the
Foundations: Teaching From an Evidence Base in Baccaluareate Education,
will highlight programs, courses, initiatives, and other innovations
built on the theory-guided, evidence-based underpinnings of nursing.
Concurrent sessions that address specialty-specific curriculum,
competencies and/or best practices will be offered. The John A.
Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing, in collaboration
with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), will
conduct two sessions at the conference, offering participants
a panel discussion on new strategies for integrating geriatrics
into the baccalaureate nursing curriculum featuring Beth E. Barba,
PhD, RN, Senior Advisor for Nursing Education Initiatives, John
A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing; H. Michael
Dreher, DNSc, RN, Assistant Professor of Nursing, College of Nursing
and Health Professions, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA; and
Ann Marie Spellbring, PhD, RN, Associate Professor, School of
Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD. Participants will
receive a complimentary CD-ROM of resource materials which may
be used as a baseline of knowledge for students in baccalaureate
nursing programs. For more information go to: http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/Hartford/index.htm.
BAGNC Has Moved!
As of September 9, 2004, the offices of the John A. Hartford Foundation
funded Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholar Awards
Program are in a new location. The program is now housed within
the Gerontological Society of America's headquarters.
The American Academy of Nursing
BAGNC Nursing Coordinating Center
1030 15th Street, NW, Suite 250
Washington, DC 20005-1503
Phone: 202.842.1275
FAX: 202.842.1150
E-Mail:
Patty Franklin Pfranklin@aannet.org
Yolanda Johnson Yjohnson@aannet.org
Natasha Waples Nwaples@aannet.org
2004 HGNI Leadership Conference
The 2004 HGNI Leadership Conference will be held November 17 -19
at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Washington, DC. For a copy of the agenda,
visit the BAGNC Web site at:
www.geriatricnursing.org.
NICHE Conference
The 8th annual Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE)
Leadership Conference will be held on January 31-February 1, 2005,
in New York, NY, with participants from hospitals around the country.
The NICHE Clinical Updates Conference will take place on February
2, 2005. The NICHE Users Conference will be held on February 3,
2005. NICHE is a system-wide program to improve geriatric nursing
care in the hospital setting, offered by the John A. Hartford
Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing. For more information
on NICHE, please visit:
www.hartfordign.org and click on NICHE.
New Funding for Research in Pain
The American Academy of Nursing is pleased to announce a new partnership
with The Mayday Fund of New York City. The Mayday Fund recently
awarded $60,000 to the Academy's Building Academic Geriatric Nursing
Capacity (BAGNC) Scholar Awards Program. These funds will be used
to award an additional $5,000 to selected 2005 BAGNC candidates
whose research includes the study of pain in the elderly. For
a copy of the 2005 BAGNC Scholar Award Application, go to
www.geriatricnursing.org.
Nurses Participate in Communications Conference
Nine nursing faculty participated in the 2nd Annual John A. Hartford
Foundation/American Federation for Aging Research Interdisciplinary
Communications Conference in July in Chicago, IL. The nurses joined
academic colleagues from social work and medicine in improving
their posters, honing their presentation skills, and brainstorming
interdisciplinary communications projects. The conference provided
an excellent opportunity for the participants to network, and
at least one interdisciplinary project has already resulted from
this opportunity. The nurses who participated were: Janice
B. Foust, PhD, RN, University of New Hampshire; Judith
E. Hertz, PhD, RN, Northern Illinois University; Karyn
Holm, PhD, RN, FAAN, DePaul University; Lisa Kelley, PhD,
RN, MA, The University of Iowa; Alison Kris, RN, PhD,
University of California, San Fransciso; Susan Loeb, PhD, RN,
University of Delaware; William Puentes, DNSc, APRN, BC,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Brenda Recchia-Jeffers,
PhD, RN, Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University;
and Debra L. Schutte, PhD, RN, University of Iowa College
of Nursing Adult & Gerontology.
4.
Tools, Resources and Opportunities
AJN Series: A New Look at the Old
The American Journal of Nursing (AJN) has partnered with
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) to move best practices
and deliver cutting-edge research information on the care of older
adults to nurses across all clinical practices. The series, "A
New Look at the Old," is a three-year project funded by two grants
from Atlantic Philanthropies totaling $700,000.
With the help of national geriatric nursing researchers, AJN
will produce a bimonthly series on nursing care of older adults,
publishing 15 evidence-based articles and columns over a period
of 30 months. PRIMEDIA Workplace Learning will join the partnership
to produce broadcasts and other multimedia materials such as videotapes,
DVDs, and CD-ROMs to disseminate the series and related information
to institutions and facilities that employ nurses and others involved
in hands-on care of older adults. The John A. Hartford Foundation
Institute for Geriatric Nursing is also partnering with AJN
to identify opportunities for distributing these materials to
nurses interested in obtaining certification in geriatrics and
to enhance knowledge of caring for older adults.
The first article, "The Challenge to Come: The Care of Older Adults"
by Nancy A. Stotts EdD, RN, FAAN (AJN Series Editor and
Hartford Scholar) & Carole E. Deitrich MS, GNP, RN, is featured
in the August edition of AJN. You can read more about the
series, find out about CE opportunities, and participate in a
discussion forum with the series authors and editors at
www.nursingcenter.com.
Special Edition: Three New OJIN Articles
Three new articles have just been posted on the Online Journal
of Issues in Nursing. An article on pain assessment and management
in elderly adults by Hanks-Bell, Halvey and Paice is a great addition
to the Health Care and the Aging Population topic. To read the
article, go to:
http://nursingworld.org/ojin/topic21/tpc21_6.htm.
Hartford Institute-American Journal of Nursing Geriatric Nursing
Research Scholars Program at NYU Nursing
The Geriatric Nursing Research Scholars Program, now in its seventh
year, and co-sponsored this year by the American Journal of
Nursing, is designed to foster new gerontological nursing
researchers. Its long-term goal is to augment the contributions
of nurse researchers toward enhancing evidence-based practice
and improving the quality of health care for older adults.
The scholars were chosen from a national pool of outstanding applicants
actively involved in gerontological nursing research. All participants
are doctorally prepared nurse researchers who are nursing faculty
at universities and colleges or who are clinically based researchers
at medical centers. Nineteen scholars attended a weeklong seminar
held at New York University's Division of Nursing, July 12 to
16, 2004 and led by Elizabeth Capezuti, PhD, RN, APRN-BC, FAAN,
co-director of the John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric
Nursing. During the seminar, scholars were brought together with
teaching facultyall nationally recognized nursing researchersfor
an intensive and interactive experience in which they gained critical
analysis and research skills. For more information visit: http://www.hartfordign.org/research/scholarsFellows/index.html.
NIH Loan Repayment Programs
The NIH Loan Repayment Programs can repay up to $35,000 of qualified
educational debt for health professionals pursuing careers in
clinical, pediatric, contraception and infertility, or health
disparities research. The programs also provide coverage for federal
and state tax liabilities.
Participants must possess a doctoral-level degree, devote 50%
or more of their time to research funded by a non-profit organization
or government entity (federal, state, or local), and have educational
loan debt equal to or exceeding 20% of their institutional base
salary. U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or U.S. nationals
may apply. The five NIH Loan Repayment Programs are the Clinical
Research LRP, Clinical Research for Individuals from Disadvantaged
Backgrounds LRP, Contraception and Infertility Research LRP, Health
Disparities LRP, and Pediatric Research LRP.
All applications for 2005 awards must be completed by 5 p.m.,
December 15, 2004. Visit www.lrp.nih.gov
to apply.
"Try This" Series
Recognition of Dementia in Hospitalized Older Adults
The John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing
has posted the newest issue of "Try This Dementia Series" developed
in partnership with the Alzheimer's Association. "Recognition
of Dementia in Hospitalized Older Adults" supports nursing identification
of dementia in the hospitalized older adult that may never have
been formally diagnosed. Each "Try This" issue is a two-page document.
On the first page is a description of why the topic is important
when caring for older adults. On page two is an assessment tool
that can be administered in 20 minutes or less. To download this,
and other "Try This" assessment tools, please see:
http://www.hartfordign.org/resources/education/tryThis.html.
New NIH Funding Program to Support High-priority, Short-term
Research
The NIH has recently announced a new funding program. The High
Priority, Short-Term Project Award, R56 grant will fund, for one
or two years, high-priority new or competing renewal R01 applications
with priority scores or percentiles that fall just outside the
funding limits of participating NIH Institutes and Centers (IC).
Participating Institutes include:
National Cancer Institute
National Center on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
National Institute on Aging National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin
Diseases
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
National Institute on Drug Abuse
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
The entire notice may be reviewed on line at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-047.html.
Please contact your Project Officer for additional information.
5.
HGNI People
Meet the HGNI Communications Team
Each issue of New Directions highlights a member of the
HGNI Communications Working Group. This month we feature Deirdre
K. Thornlow, MN, RN, CPHQ, Director, Gerontology Programs,
American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
Ms. Thornlow, was appointed Gerontology Program Director for The
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) in February
2001. In this role, Ms. Thornlow oversees two grant-funded initiatives
supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation. The Enhancing Geriatric
Nursing Education project supports the development of gerontology
curriculum and new clinical experiences in 20 baccalaureate and
10 graduate schools of nursing. The Creating Careers in Geriatric
Advanced Practice Nursing project has awarded scholarship monies
to 23 schools of nursing to expand opportunities for nursing students
to choose a career in geriatric advanced practice nursing.
Prior to joining AACN, Ms. Thornlow was the Director of Quality
Operations at The George Washington University Hospital in Washington,
DC. With a background in health care administration, Ms. Thornlow
managed the hospital's quality management, risk management, case
management, and employee health departments. As the hospital's
Director of Quality Management and Regulatory Compliance, she
developed and instituted a hospital quality report card, which
is still used by the institution today, and successfully led the
organization to receive its highest accreditation score from the
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
(JCAHO).
Ms. Thornlow's experience as an advanced practice nurse included
the roles of Cardiovascular Clinical Nurse Specialist and Integrated
Care Pathway Coordinator. A registered nurse in the United States
and the United Kingdom, she received her master's degree in nursing
at the University of California-Los Angeles and her bachelor's
of science in nursing from Pennsylvania State University. Ms.
Thornlow is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ),
a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ),
and a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the International Honor Society
of Nursing. Ms. Thornlow is currently enrolled in the doctoral
program in nursing at the University of Virginia.
6.
HGNI Link of the Month: GeroNurseOnline
Nurse Competence in Aging (NCA) announces the launch of
www.GeroNurseOnline.org, a comprehensive Web site providing
current best practice information on care of older adults.
GeroNurseOnline features:
Geriatric nursing protocols
Customizable nursing information
Content by topics and patient signs/symptoms
Content based on areas of interest/specialty
Links to a variety geriatric nursing resources
Links to geriatric education centers
Information on gerontological certification
Information on nursing programs in geriatrics
Nurse Competence in Aging is a 5-year initiative funded by The
Atlantic Philanthropies (USA) Inc., awarded to the American Nurses
Association (ANA) through the American Nurses Foundation (ANF),
and represents a strategic alliance between ANA, the American
Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) and the John A. Hartford Foundation
Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University.
Write
to Us
We are committed to creating a monthly publication that serves
your needs and interests. New Directions, therefore, welcomes
your feedback and encourages you to supply ideas, stories, resources,
news and other content for subsequent issues. To make a contribution,
please contact Patty Franklin at Pfranklin@aannet.org,
Deirdre Thornlow at dthornlo@aacn.nche.edu
or Elaine Gould at elaine.gould@nyu.edu.
Please
Note
If you know of someone or a group of people who would like to
receive this newsletter, please send an email to John Beilenson
at jbeilenson@aboutscp.com,
and we will subscribe them.
If you have received this message in error or would like to unsubscribe
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"Unsubscribe" in the subject line. For more information about
the HGNI's ongoing Evaluation, please see: www.geriatricnursing.info.
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