SPECIAL SESSION: Nursing’s Footprint: Bringing It All Together

Description/Overview: This special geriatric presentation will provide the audience an overview of the recent Institute on Medicine’s Report: “Retooling for an Aging American: Building the Health Care Workforce”. The prediction of the number of older adults in the US is expected to almost double between 2005 and 2030 to over 70 million, an increase from 12 percent of the US population to almost 20 percent. Also it is expected the “oldest old” age 80 and over is expected to double from 11 million to 20 million. This report proposes a three-pronged approach to addressing the healthcare workforce needed to take care of older adults by focusing on enhancing the competence of all individuals in the delivery of geriatric care; increasing the recruitment and retention of geriatrics specialists and caregivers; and redesigning models of care and broadening provider and patient roles to achieve greater flexibility. Within the area of geriatric nursing clinical care, the nursing services at Wishard Hospital completed the NICHE survey process and have implemented geriatric nursing competencies into the medical-surgical nursing orientation process. The implementation of a clinical career advancement ladder demonstrates the importance of excellence in clinical care throughout the hospital. Within the area of geriatric nursing education at the IU School of Nursing, a focus on geriatric concepts, curriculum, and geriatric clinical experiences has been incorporated into the adult nurse practitioner program. Within the area of geriatric nursing in the realm of research, IU Geriatrics and Senior Care at Wishard has supported the research study “Geriatric Resources for Assessment and Care of Elders (GRACE)." This model of care was cited in the IOM report as an example of an innovative way to provide older adults care. In summary, nursing has many opportunities to facilitate innovative ways to improve the care for older adults and address the needs of the healthcare workforce for our “Aging America”.