ABSTRACT
Acute-care hospitals have few structures, programs, or staff prepared to address the special needs of older adults. To address this issue, the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing [including the Nurses Improving Care for Hospitalized Elders (NICHE) program] and the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations proposed language for a Bill of Rights for Hospitalized Older Adults. The Bill of Rights moves from general value statements to the specific knowledge, skills, and actions necessary to provide quality of care to older adults. The authors describe the development and testing of the Bill of Rights and suggest steps for its adoption and dissemination.
Subject(s)
Acute Disease/nursing , Benchmarking/organization & administration , Geriatric Nursing/organization & administration , Needs Assessment/organization & administration , Nursing Staff, Hospital/organization & administration , Total Quality Management/organization & administration , Aged , Cooperative Behavior , Efficiency, Organizational , Health Facility Environment/organization & administration , Humans , Organizational Innovation , United StatesABSTRACT
To meet the special needs of and provide quality health care to nursing home residents, the health care workforce must be knowledgeable about the aging process. Health professionals are minimally prepared in their academic programs to care for older adults, and few programs have required rotations in geriatrics. Teaching nursing homes (TNHs) have shown promise as sites for the preparation of a health workforce to care for older adults in nursing homes as well as improvement of quality outcomes. This article reports on the process and recommendations of a TNH summit of experts in geriatric education and practice as to the feasibility of developing a sustainable and replicable TNH model that would prepare a professional workforce knowledgeable about and prepared to work in long-term care. The TNH summit identified characteristics of partnerships between academia, nursing home(s), and other stakeholders that would constitute a successful TNH collaboration. Goals of a TNH partnership between service and academia include interdisciplinary education and practice, research and dissemination of evidence-based practices, and benchmarks of a nursing home professional learning environment.
