Development of core competencies and a recognition program for gerontological nursing educators.

Despite efforts to implement learner competencies in gerontological nursing, a significant knowledge-attitude disassociation remains, with few students interested in pursuing careers in the care of older adults. One reason may be the lack of well-qualified faculty who can design engaging learning experiences with older adults and serve as positive role models for aging care. In response, the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence commissioned the development of core competencies and a recognition program for educators in gerontological nursing.

Best practices for learning physiology: combining classroom and online methods.

Physiology is a requisite course for many professional allied health programs and is a foundational science for learning pathophysiology, health assessment, and pharmacology. Given the demand for online learning in the health sciences, it is important to evaluate the efficacy of online and in-class teaching methods, especially as they are combined to form hybrid courses. The purpose of this study was to compare two hybrid physiology sections in which one section was offered mostly in-class (85% in-class), and the other section was offered mostly online (85% online).

Facilitated Learning to Advance Geriatrics: Increasing the Capacity of Nurse Faculty to Teach Students About Caring for Older Adults.

Purpose: The Facilitated Learning to Advance Geriatrics program (FLAG) was designed to increase the numbers of nurse faculty in prelicensure programs with basic knowledge about aging and teaching effectiveness to prepare students to provide safe, high quality care for older adults.

Methods: Using a framework to improve transfer of learning, FLAG was designed to include: (a) a workshop to increase basic knowledge of aging and common geriatric syndromes, and effective use of evidence-based teaching/learning strategies; (b) a year-long mentoring program to support application of workshop learning and leading change in participants' schools to ensure that geriatrics is a priority. Both formative and summative evaluation methods were used, and included self-assessment of objectives, program satisfaction, and teaching self-efficacy.

Designing a measure of Complexity Compression in registered nurses.

Researchers in Minnesota have described and validated the phenomenon of Complexity Compression in qualitative studies of registered nurses. Analysis of themes from this research led to the design of a survey to assess nurses' agreement with variables that contribute to their experience of Complexity Compression. The survey was administered to a random sample of 199 registered nurses in Minnesota.

Teaching the teacher: the Faculty Learning About Geriatrics (FLAG) program.

As the number of individuals older than 65 years increases, there is a concomitant need for more nurses to provide care meeting the unique needs of older adults. The nursing shortage presents a challenge to schools of nursing to educate enough practitioners in geriatric nursing. The John A.

Predictors of nursing home admission for persons with dementia.

Objective: The objective of this systematic review was to identify factors that consistently predict nursing home admission (NHA) in persons with dementia.

Methods: Studies published in English were retrieved by searching the MEDLINE (1966-2006), PSYCINFO (1950-2006), CINAHL (1982-2006), and Digital Dissertations (1950-2006) databases. Bibliographies of retrieved studies were also searched.

GAPN postacute care coordination improves hip fracture outcomes.

We tested the effectiveness of a nursing intervention model to improve health, function, and return-home outcomes in elders with hip fracture via a 2-year randomized clinical trial. Thirty three elders (age > 65 years) were tracked from hospital discharge to 12 months postfracture. The treatment group had a gerontologic advanced practice nurse as postacute care coordinator for 6 months who intervened with each elder regardless of the postacute care setting, making biweekly visits and/or phone calls.

Complexity compression: nurses under fire.

It has been documented that up to 40% of the workday of nurses is taken up by meeting the ever-increasing demands of the systems of healthcare delivery in which nurses are employed. These demands include the need for increasing documentation, for learning new and seemingly ever-changing procedures, and for adapting to turnover in management and administration. Attention to these issues also means that 40% of that workday is not available to patients.

Development and validation of a screen for specialized discharge planning services.

Background: There is no rigorously developed and empirically validated screening tool to identify, early in the hospital stay, those adults who will use specialized hospital discharge planning services.

Objectives: To develop and validate a screen using hospital admission clinical data that discriminates between adults who use and do not use specialized discharge planning services.

Methods: Subjects consisted of prospectively sampled adult patients admitted to two hospitals located in a Midwestern United States city in 1998 (tool development sample, n = 991) and 2002 (validation sample, n = 303).

Improving resident outcomes with GAPN organization level interventions.

This research tested the effectiveness of the second tier of interventions in a two-tiered nursing intervention model designed to improve quality of care for residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). The first tier of the model called for gerontological advanced practice nurses (GAPNs) to provide direct care and to teach staff to implement care protocols for residents with incontinence, pressure ulcers, depression, and aggression. Results of the first-tier study indicated significant improvement in resident outcomes in incontinence, pressure ulcers, and aggression.

Exploring the connection between self-efficacy and effective diabetes self-management.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review the existing empirical evidence about factors that contribute to effective diabetes self-management as indicated by healthy outcomes in persons with the disease, with a specific focus on self-efficacy, to determine the link between learned self-efficacy and effective diabetes self-management in adults.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted of the extant literature from 1985-2001 that described factors related to effective self-management of diabetes. The review included theoretical and empirical articles.

Translation and equivalence: the Profile of Mood States Short Form in English and Chinese.

As international research collaborations increase, health care professionals are becoming more aware of the advantages of using common measures to compare outcomes of assessments across cultures. Measuring mood states across diverse cultures is important for understanding the universal aspects of mood and measuring outcomes of nursing interventions. The purpose of this article is to describe the process used to translate the Profile of Mood States Short Form from English to Chinese and to assess the equivalence of this instrument in the two languages.