The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU College of Nursing has launched a new Specialty Practice series of “Try This:®” assessment tools aimed at specialty nurses caring for older adults in hospitals and other settings.
The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU College of Nursing has launched a new Specialty Practice series of “Try This:®” assessment tools aimed at specialty nurses caring for older adults in hospitals and other settings.
The new “Try This” series was created through the REASN (Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in Specialty Nursing) initiative, which has brought together 13 specialty nursing associations in a joint effort to improve their members’ knowledge and skills in care of older adults.
More than 40 issues of “Try This” have been published since 1998, each focusing on a topic specific to the older adult population and including an assessment tool that can be administered in 20 minutes or fewer.
The new Specialty Practice series of “Try This” assessment tools will be issued periodically by the Hartford Institute in collaboration with national specialty nursing associations that are members of the REASN initiative.
The first publication in the new series, “Assessment of Nociceptive versus Neuropathic Pain in Older Adults,” was developed by the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) in collaboration with the Hartford Institute. The pain-assessment tool was developed because diagnosing pain in older adults can be more difficult than in younger people. It includes two pain scales that can be used to differentiate and detail the various types of pain older adults can experience and to expedite and ensure the efficacy of their treatment. This free resource can be found on the Hartford Institute’s clinical nursing website www.ConsultGeriRN.org under the tab “Clinical Resources/Tools.”
“One-fifth of all nurses are specialty nurses, and virtually all of them care for older adults within their practices,” says Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, director of the Harford Institute. “Our goal through the Specialty Practice “Try This” series is to ensure that these nurses have the most up-to-date best practices in care of older adults at their fingertips.”
The REASN initiative is composed of 13 hospital-based specialty nursing associations, representing more than 200,000 nurses. Members include:
- American Academy of Nursing/Expert Panel on Acute and Critical Care
- American Association of Critical Care Nurses
- American Organization of Nurse Executives
- American Society for Pain Management Nursing
- American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses
- Association of periOperative Registered Nurses
- Emergency Nurses Association
- Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association
- Infusion Nurses Society
- National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists
- National Nursing Staff Development Organization
- Oncology Nurses Society
- Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association
The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU College of Nursing seeks to shape the quality of health care that older Americans receive by promoting the highest level of geriatric competency in all nurses who deliver care. By raising the standards of nursing care, the Hartford Institute aims to ensure that people age in comfort and dignity. Its initiatives include education, practice, research, policy, and consumer education.
REASN is a four-year initiative, funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies, Inc., to deepen the involvement of specialty nurse associations in improving nursing competencies among their members who care for older adults. This project advances the accomplishments of the Hartford Institute in promoting best practices in the care of older adults by working with specialty nursing associations to move to a higher level of engagement in geriatric care.
www.ConsultGeriRN.org www.HartfordIGN.org www.NICHEProgram.org