New York, NY: Twenty-eight national nursing organizations, including twenty-one specialty associations and seven members of the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations (CGNO), have endorsed the Specialty Nursing Association Global Vision Statement on Care of Older Adults. The statement and a list of its endorsers follow this release.
The statement emphasizes that, with the rapid increase in the population of U.S. older adults, the nurse workforce must become equipped to meet their changing and specific health care needs. Older adults constitute the largest group of health care users across all settings, and virtually all nurses care for older adults in their subspecialties. Yet, the majority of nurses received no or little information about best practices in the care of older adults from their undergraduate or graduate specialty-degree programs. Nurses must be competent to deliver care to older adults, being sensitive to the physiological, functional, and psychological needs that set them apart from younger adults.
The vision statement was developed through REASN (Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in Specialty Nursing), a project of The Harford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University College of Nursing. REASN seeks a comprehensive response among nursing specialties to support evidence-based best practices in care of older adults in hospitals, home care, and institutional long-term care settings. The Specialty Nursing Association Global Vision Statement on Care of Older Adults can be viewed at: http://consultgerirn.org/specialtypractice/GlobalVision_Statement/