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Nationwide, more than half of all hospitalized adults are older than 65 years of age, and in the next two decades, this number will rise as baby boomers age.
“As patients, older adults require nursing care that addresses their special psychological and social needs,” said Susan Gordon, MSN, ACNP-BP, nursing director of Tower 10CD, and co-leader of the BWH NICHE Committee. “BWH is committed to improving our care of older adults through implementing evidence-based NICHE principles.”
NICHE, which stands for Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders, is a program initiated by the Hartford Institute at the New York University College of Nursing. This month, BWH will be formally inducted as a NICHE facility during the 15th annual NICHE conference in New Orleans. The goal of the NICHE program at BWH is to enhance care by improving approaches to core issues, such as falls, delirium, restraint use, incontinence, pain, skin breakdown, use of advance directives and family involvement in decision-making.
Tower 10CD and Shapiro 8 will serve as pilot units for the program. Staff will participate in online NICHE education, develop an action plan to guide the assessment of BWH’s organizational strengths and needs in the care of older patients and develop an educational plan for clinical staff.
The next step is to survey all BWH clinical nurses using the Geriatric Institutional Assessment Profile, which will identify aptitudes and knowledge related to elder care and specific practice issues and concerns. Results of the survey will enable BWH to assess what the educational needs are and benchmark against similar institutions.