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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to identify the three domains of the Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify non-pharmacological interventions to provide to older adults in pain.
The rising number of older adults admitted into an acute care setting has created a great need for increased education surrounding the special healthcare needs of the older adult population in relation to pain management. As a Fellow in the Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy, a new nurse leader accepted the challenges of improving comfort for older adults, learning strategies to effectively implement change in her organization and expanding her scope of influence within her community. This nurse leader formed an inter-professional project team to improve comfort management in the older adult population. The team, which also included an older adult community member, created a Comfort Menu that provided over 50 non-pharmacological alternatives for pain management. Thirty nursing staff on one general medical unit were screened to assess their knowledge regarding pain in older adults. The staff was then educated on the physiological differences in older adults, the importance of offering non-pharmacological comfort interventions and the Beers Criteria. The next steps after implementation of the Comfort Menu will be to evaluate the knowledge level of the nurses and assess the effectiveness of interventions chosen from the Comfort Menu.
Throughout this journey, the nurse leader has developed expertise in older adult care, project management, presentation skill and overall self-confidence. A heightened awareness about the need for improving care of older adults was developed as a direct result of the nurse leader’s efforts throughout the organization. This new awareness sparked the need to form an inter-professional Geriatric Clinical Collaborative whose purpose is to improve care of older adults. Geriatrics was made a strategic goal for this organization for 2013 along with the NICHE accreditation and the implementation of a 30-bed ACE unit.
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