Aging Couple Across the Curriculum.

Aging Couple Across the Curriculum is a unique program designed around a couple who "age" a decade with each year of medical school. In these half-day sessions, students encounter the aging couple through a standardized patient experience. Interactive breakout sessions conducted by multidisciplinary professionals enhance student learning and appreciation of the contributions of the team of professionals.

Infection in the elderly.

Many functional, demographic, and immunologic changes associated with aging are responsible for increasing the incidence and severity of infectious diseases in the elderly. Management is complicated by age-related organ system changes. Because many of the elderly are on multiple medications for underlying illnesses, antimicrobial therapy needs to be chosen keeping drug interactions and adverse events in mind.

Tangling with the barriers to culture change: creating a resident-centered nursing home environment.

Prior to beginning culture change, nursing homes should analyze potential barriers, such as staff turnover, and develop plans to deal with these barriers. Infusion of culture change is dependent on inversion of the organizational structure, placing decision-making in the hands of the older adults. Although data from this study indicated decreased depression in older adults and increased family satisfaction with culture change, there were many confounding variables.

A simulated couple aging across the four years of medical school.

Background: The medical students of today will deliver health care to an ever-increasing aging population. Regardless of specialties, physicians must view older patients holistically with attention to medical, psychosocial, and family issues and functional status.

Description: This program was designed around a couple who ages from 60 to 90 over the 4 years of medical school.

The Sh-h-h-h Project: nonpharmacological interventions.

Promoting rest and sleep is integral to the profession of nursing. The Sh-h-h-h Project, a nonpharmacological program designed to enhance rest and sleep, was implemented on a hospital medical unit. Nursing assistants provided patients with various modalities to improve sleep, including back rubs, warm drinks, blankets warmed in a blanket warmer, aromatherapy, relaxation music, and earplugs.

Helping hands: CNAs in elder care.

One facility's functional model of care for hospitalized elders focuses on improving nutrition, toileting, and promoting mobility.

Satisfaction and retention of CNAs working within a functional model of elder care.

With a functional model of care for hospitalized elders focused on improving nutrition and toileting and promoting mobility, certified nurse assistants' satisfaction was improved and turnover was reduced.

A model of nurse assistant care to promote functional status in hospitalized elders.

After completing 20 hours of classes on promoting the functional status of hospitalized elders, the certified nursing assistants on this medical unit participated in developing a new model of care delivery. Discharge destination (home or nursing home) and length of stay were compared for patients pre- and post-implementation. Length of stay decreased by 2.

From nursing home to hospital and back again: an educational program to improve care for hospitalized nursing home patients.

Hospital nurses have little knowledge of the geriatric syndromes and the processes of caregiving in nursing homes. This lack of knowledge is a barrier to continuity of care for patients admitted to hospitals from nursing homes. An educational program, including both classroom and clinical components, was designed to help bridge this gap.

Can a beverage cart help improve hydration?

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a hydration program to improve hydration and prevent conditions associated with dehydration (delirium, urinary tract infections, respiratory infections, falls, skin breakdown, and constipation). Data showed a significant increase in fluid in each body compartment, significant decrease in the number of laxatives, increase in the number of bowel movements, decline in the number of falls, and decrease in cost during the hydration period.