adult-gerontology

The adult/gerontology (gero) nurse practitioner (NP) delivers primary and/or specialty palliative care to persons and their families who live each day with a myriad of serious illnesses. In this role, the adult/gero NP uses their skill set to address the whole person (physical, psychological, social, and spiritual/existential) to improve the quality of life for persons they care for. This article is the fourth in a series of 6 highlighting the different roles of the adult/gero NP and the advanced certified hospice and palliative registered nurse, and how these 2 roles overlap...

Ethical dilemmas exist with decision-making regarding resource allocations, such as critical care, ventilators and other critical equipment, and pharmaceuticals during pandemics. Triage artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms based on prognostication tools exist to guide these decisions; however, implicit bias may affect the decision-making process leading to deviation from the algorithm recommendations. Conflict within the ethical domain may be affected as well. A knowledge gap was identified within the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) curriculum regarding ethics in crisis standards of care (CSC) medical decision-making...

BACKGROUND: Loneliness in older adults is a critical issue that negatively affects their well-being. The potential of personal voice assistant (PVA) devices like Amazon's Alexa Echo in reducing loneliness is an emerging area of interest, but it remains under-researched. OBJECTIVE: this study aims to investigate the effect of interaction time and verbal engagement with PVA devices on reducing loneliness among older adults living alone. METHOD: In this experiment, individuals aged 75 and older ( n = 15), living alone, were provided with Amazon Alexa Echo devices...

Palliative care aims to optimize quality of life and reduce physical, psychological, social, and spiritual suffering for people living with serious and life-threatening illness throughout the life span. There are different educational pathways to becoming an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) and a range of areas in which APRNs may specialize, including hospice and palliative care. National guidelines and professional standards have been developed to guide the delivery of high-quality palliative care and to demonstrate the need for all nurses to be competent in providing primary palliative care...

Graduate nursing programs must provide end-of-life (EOL) content to prepare nurse practitioners to manage the holistic needs of patients. This project aimed to measure the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium curriculum's impact on student self-confidence and anxiety levels. A pretest/posttest study design was implemented using an EOL simulation and the Nursing Anxiety and Self-Confidence With Clinical Decision-Making Scale (NASC-CDM©) to compare baseline self-confidence and anxiety levels related to clinical decision-making...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of local anesthesia (LA) course for physician assistant (PA) and adult gerontology-acute care nurse practitioner (NP) program students on knowledge, attitudes, confidence, and intention to incorporate skills in clinical practice. METHODS: The course was conducted by dental faculty for forty-eight PA and seven NP students and consisted of two lecture hours on anatomy of the oral cavity, anesthesia and pain management, 2 hours of preclinic lab where participants practiced injection technique on mannikins, and a clinical practicum conducted by dental school faculty and residents where students observed dental treatment including administration of LA, and discussed symptom triage by NPs and PAs for patients with dental problems including orofacial pain, initial management including LA, and patient referral to dentists...

INTRODUCTION: Nursing homes have been disproportionally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly because of resident vulnerability, inadequate staffing, and poor quality of care. CURRENT STATE: Despite billions of dollars in funding, nursing homes often do not meet minimum federal staffing requirements and are frequently cited for infection prevention and control deficiencies. These factors significantly contributed to resident and staff deaths. For-profit nursing homes were associated with more COVID-19 infections and deaths...

BACKGROUND: National standards for nurse practitioner licensure require certification programs to conduct practice analyses to ensure that certified nurse practitioners possess the necessary knowledge for entry-level practice. The practice analysis for the American Association of Critical Care Nurses Certification Corporation (AACN Cert Corp) adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner (AGACNP) credential is performed every five years by the AACN Certification Corporation. PURPOSE: The AACN Cert Corp conducted a practice analysis to confirm that current AGACNP practice is reflected in the ACNPC-AG test plan, and the examination is congruent with 2008 consensus model guidelines...

The benefits to postgraduate training programs (PTPs) for nurse practitioners (NPs) in all populations are being well established in the literature. As health care systems and teams evolve, acute care NPs (neonatal, pediatric, and adult-gerontology) are providing more specialized care to increasingly complex patients. As educators and clinicians, we recognize that acute care PTPs are playing an important role in preparing NPs to work to the top of their scope and training. This article provides our perspectives on the merits of PTPs for adult-gerontology acute care NPs and provides guidance for counseling NPs who are interested in acute care PTPs...

Whether certified in acute or primary care, AGNPs are prepared for many practice settings.

OBJECTIVE: This study sought to investigate the current status and faculty members' perceptions of oral care education in Bachelor of Nursing curriculums in Japan. METHOD: Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey of 196 participants, who were faculty members in charge of oral care education in the basic, adult, gerontological, and home nursing fields, from 295 nursing schools that offered Bachelor degrees in nursing across Japan. RESULTS: The quantitative data showed that 38...

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to investigate the performance of oral assessment and health care education at nursing schools across Japan to identify problems and the need for oral health professional support. METHODS: The participants were the academic staff in charge of oral health care education in the basic, adult, gerontological, and home nursing fields of 295 schools in Japan that offered a bachelor's degree in nursing. A questionnaire was sent to 1180 heads of the nursing fields of these schools...

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in the abrupt withdrawal of clinical sites for advanced practice nursing students which worsened an already challenging placement process. Few studies to date have analyzed the use of alternative clinical practice experiences used to facilitate the completion of program requirements by advanced practice nursing students beyond direct hour requirements. The faculty team from one university decided to track and analyze their use of alternative clinical practice experiences for advanced practice nursing students actively enrolled during the first semester of the pandemic...

BACKGROUND: As the United States population is aging, there is a chronic shortage of geriatrics- and gerontology- trained clinicians despite a variety of incentives. With primary care clinicians also in short supply, health systems are trying to cope with the increasing demand for care for older adults PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine respondents' willingness to recommend their career to others and beliefs about changes necessary to enhance the supply of appropriately prepared clinicians METHODS: This study used a national survey of a stratified sample of 276 physicians and 134 nurse practitioners working in primary care and geriatric practices...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Nurses perception and attitude towards an older patient can positively or negatively influence the quality rendered. As students under training, the views of this population needs to be sought and shaped to improve the quality of care the older patients receive. This is because life expectancy is on the rise. The study aimed to explore students' perception of ageing and their attitude towards care of the older adults. METHODS AND MATERIALS: An exploratory descriptive design was used...

The 40th anniversary gemstone is traditionally a ruby - the stone of kings and queens. The Latin derivative is "ruber" which means red (the deep color of the stone). Rubies are thought to have an eternal inner flame or fire that in many global cultures symbolizes nobility, purity, and passion. The ruby is believed to promote health and knowledge as well as love and compassion. It has also been connected to improved energy, creativity, motivation, and goal setting. Does this sound like the GAPNA mission, vision, goals, and experience you know? A gathering of inspired and dedicated gerontological nurses founded this organization in 1981 and it has been growing stronger and burning brighter with recognized influence every year...

Health care providers are often tasked with communicating difficult, emotionally charged news, including delivering an unwelcome diagnosis and planning end-of-life care. Patients and family members often cannot recall specifics of these conversations, although their perceptions of how information was communicated by health care providers impact not only their evaluation of the quality of care received, but also their abilities to cope with the communicated bad news. What can be done to better prepare novice clinicians to have these types of conversations? This quality improvement project used a simulation-based difficult conversation workshop given to adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner students in their final year of study...

BACKGROUND: Advance care planning (ACP) is an integral aspect of patient-centered care, however medical (MD) and Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) students receive minimal education on how to facilitate ACP discussions and ultimately feel uncomfortable having these discussions with patients.1-4 The aim of this project was to increase MD and AGACNP students' perceived ability and confidence in leading ACP conversations through an ACP educational program called the Letter Project Pilot (LPP)...

BACKGROUND: Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students often experience challenges that can cause poor academic performance and attrition. Known threats to nurses' professional quality of life and patient care include compassion fatigue and presenteeism; it is not known how these phenomena carry over from prior nursing experience to DNP students' academic experiences and subsequent NP practice. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) can also threaten nursing students' coping ability and overall wellbeing...

BACKGROUND: Family and adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner (NP) students must obtain patient clinical hours caring for older adults. Primary care occurs in a variety of settings, including long-term care (LTC) facilities. Anecdotal reports indicate that faculty in some primary NP academic programs do not recognize the robust primary care opportunities that exist in LTC settings. METHOD: This article describes a professional nursing organization's process of researching the appropriateness of designating LTC clinical hours as allowable primary care clinical experiences for NP students...