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HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF THE JOHN A. HARTFORD INSTITUTE FOR GERIATRIC NURSING WEBSITE

The Hartford Institute at the College of Nursing, New York University, seeks to shape the quality of health care received by older adults by promoting the highest level of geriatric competence in all nurses. It is committed to this endeavor by developing and disseminating evidence-based practice guidelines and educational material through a variety of networks, organizations, associations, and schools. The Hartford Institute infuses these practices into the education of every nursing student and the work- environment of every practicing professional nurse. There is a consistent thread of professionalism and scholarly expertise in every program, model, resource and tool provided by or accessed via the Institute. The Hartford Institute educates the public to expect best practice and encourages national leadership to establish best practice as the standard for geriatric nursing care.

The Hartford Institute Website http://www.hartfordign.org has useful geriatric nursing resources and tools geared towards nursing staff, staff developers, students and faculty. The Institute grants permission to reproduce material available on the website – and increasingly available as CD-ROMs – provided the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, New York University, is cited as the source.

FREE   Try This Assessment Series

Some resources available on the site:

• Try This Assessment Series. FREE downloadable (printable and to PDA) assessment information and a corresponding tool on a variety of topics; all are evidence-based. Topics include depression, delirium, pain assessment, confusion assessment, oral health assessment and an additional 9 topics that are dementia-specific, such as wandering, evaluation of executive dysfunction.

• Online Gerontological Nurse Certification Review Course. Free. The review course is easy to use, available 24/7, and consists of 4 modules and practice questions. The course is self-paced and takes about 8 hours to complete. We recommended the review course in preparation for the AALNA Assisted Living Nurse Certification exam (due out Sept 07). Initially  created to review and study for the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for certification as a gerontological nurse, we recommend as part of your preparation for the AALNA Assisted Living Nurse Certification exam (due out Spr 07).

• Partners for Dissemination of Best Practices in Care for Older Adults is a two-part program. Staff development educators can become partners with access to the leadrship-development workshops designs, and to curriculum and lesson plans for 21 different topics. A sample chapter of the Curriculum Guide is available on the Hartford website.

• Fundamental Geriatric Curriculum Resources. Best Nursing Practices in Care for Older Adults. The 20 topics in this series are fully scripted PowerPoint Teaching Slides consisting of the best and the most recent information about best practices in care of older adults. Each topic/chapter is organized around Competencies, Content Outline, Instruments and Scales, Case Studies, Experiential/Clinical activities, and Post-test. As with the other resources at the Hartford website, everything is completely free and downloadable; attribution to the Hartford Institute is required. Topics include: attitudes about aging; cross-cultural influences; functional assessment; cognitive assessment; sleep/rest; pain/palliation; urinary continence; poypharmacy.

• GeroNurseOnline: can be accessed directly via www.geronurseonline.org. Organized by specific geriatric topic or by “need help stat”, this website has nursing guidelines and protocols that are evidence-based, supported by research, and written by experts. This site is worth checking out!

• Special topics in Long Term Care.
• Wandering and Elopement: Litigation Issues  (M. Boltz, MSDN, APRN-C, NHA)
• Culture Change in Nursing Homes: An Ethical Perspective (E. Mitty, EdD, RN)

• Nursing Counts. Appears in the American Journal of Nursing as a periodic column. To view issues that address long-term care go to: hartfordign.org/resources/policy/nursingCounts.html.

We look forward to seeing you on the Hartford Institute Website!  For questions or assistance, please email: em7@nyu.edu (Ethel Mitty, EdD, RN)