Nurses must be equipped to meet the changing and specific healthcare needs of the growing population of older adults in the
country, according to a vision statement endorsed by a coalition of national nursing organizations.
The Specialty Nursing Association Global Vision Statement on Care of Older Adults notes that while virtually all nurses care
for older adults in their subspecialties, most receive little or no information from degree programs about best practices
in this care. With the total number of people age 65 and older expected to represent approximately 20 percent of the U.S.
population by 2030, the nurse workforce must be competent to deliver care to older adults and sensitive to their physiological,
functional, and psychological needs.
The statement emphasizes that all nurses be familiar with evidence-based knowledge about care of older adults and all pre-and
post-licensure nursing education programs incorporate competencies related to their care. An essential element of hospital
staff development education should involve care of older adults, and healthcare settings need to establish systems that support
best practices.
REASN (Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in Specialty Nursing) developed the vision statement. A project of the Hartford Institute
for Geriatric Nursing at New York University's College of Nursing, REASN seeks a comprehensive response among nursing specialties
to support evidence-based best practices in the care of older adults. The coalition backing the statement comprises 28 national nursing organizations, including 21 specialty associations and seven
members of the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations. Practicing nurses should look to these specialty nursing associations
as resources for evidence-based clinical-care information on older adults.
Visit http://consultgerirn.org/specialty_practice/global_vision_statement/ to see the statement and its endorsers.
In Brief
Citizenship not obstacle to emergency treatment
Emergency department nurses have ethical and legal obligations that require them to protect the safety of all patients regardless
of citizenship status, according to an article published in the March issue of the Journal of Emergency Nursing. Researchers at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas conducted a literature review to examine the ethical and legal dilemmas
emergency department nurses face when dealing with illegal immigrants. Nurses have a legal obligation to give appropriate
examination and treatment to all who present at an emergency department, the authors note. Nurses also have an ethical obligation
to uphold the principle of confidentiality, including a patient's citizenship status, and their duty to do no harm.
Source: HealthDay
Advice to patients often misses target
Patients are exposed to so many different safety recommendations that the advice may confuse them, according to a study published
in the April issue of The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. The authors argue that further research is needed to identify those recommendations with the most potential for improving
patient safety. A panel of investigators—and 22 mothers who are relatives of the investigators—rated 160 patient safety recommendations
published by 26 U.S. healthcare organizations.
Did You Know...
The 10 most popular National Parks in 2008 by millions of visitors:
1. Great Smoky Mountains, 9.04
2. Grand Canyon, 4.43
3. Yosemite, 3.43
4. Olympic, 3.08
5. Yellowstone, 3.07
6. Cuyahoga Valley, 2.83
7. Rocky Mountain, 2.78
8. Zion, 2.69
9. Grand Teton, 2.49
10. Acadia, 2.08
Source: National Park Service. 10 Most Visited National Parks (2008). Retrieved April 10, 2009, from http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/refdesk/10MVUNP.pdf
