U of M School of Nursing to Sponsor First-Ever Innovative Geriatric Nursing Faculty Development Program

Contact:
Melissa Ritter, Academic Health Center, 612-626-4784, ritt0114@umn.edu
Laura Stroup, Academic Health Center, 612-624-5680, stro0481@umn.edu

MINNEAPOLIS/ ST. PAUL (July 6, 2008) - The University of Minnesota School of Nursing's Minnesota Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence (MnHCGNE) is sponsoring the first Faculty Learning About Geriatrics (FLAG) Program, Aug. 4-8, 2008. The program is designed to further educate nursing faculty from the Upper Midwest who do not have extensive geriatric nursing expertise in order to better prepare the nursing workforce to care for the rapidly growing elderly population.

The FLAG Program aims to educate and increase awareness of geriatric care by integrating gerontology into nursing curricula in undergraduate and graduate levels. Program leaders hope that other programs like the FLAG program at the University of Minnesota will help ease the projected shortage of health care workers who will care for aging baby boomers.

The FLAG Program offers a one-week institute at the University of Minnesota, as well as a one-year mentorship around a specific geriatric nursing educational project.

 "This program will serve as a model for how to strengthen geriatric nursing education in schools throughout the country," said Jean Wyman, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., F.G.S.A., director of the MnHCGNE at the University of Minnesota. "It will have significant impact on the care of older adults through the large numbers of students reached by the courses taught by the FLAG fellows."

Between 2010-20 in Minnesota alone, the geriatric population, those 65 and older, will grow by 40 percent compared with only a 4 percent growth for those under age 65. Nurses will continue to play a critical role in the provision of care to these older Americans who represent 50 percent of hospitalizations; 60 percent of all ambulatory adult primary care visits; 70 percent of all home-care visits; and, 85 percent of all nursing home residents (National Center for Health Statistics, 2004).

The FLAG program includes attendees from the Upper Midwest Geriatric Nursing Education Alliance, which includes nurse educators from Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and tribal colleges in the Midwest, doctoral nursing students, and advanced practice nurses. It provides learning experiences that involve evidence-based teaching strategies for geriatric content development and clinical experiences, the implementation of geriatric nursing education projects, and inter-professional collaboration in gerontology education. This program is sponsored in part by the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Minnesota Area Geriatric Educational Center (MAGEC), and Evercare, a leading national program that coordinates care for people with long-term advanced illnesses and older adults.

The MnHCGNE seeks to advance the care of older adults by preparing nursing faculty from diverse backgrounds who can provide leadership in geriatric nursing at all levels of academic nursing programs and at tribal colleges in the Upper Midwest. The center at the University of Minnesota's School of Nursing is a part of the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (HGNI) that has prepared professional nurses to play leadership roles in improving the health and health care of older adults.

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing is ranked among the nation's top nursing schools. It is a leader in nursing research and has a combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment of approximately 850 students. The school produces 55 percent of the faculty in Minnesota's public and private nursing schools, advanced practice nurses and nurses who can assume leadership positions. It is the oldest continuously-operated, university-based school of nursing. The School of Nursing is one of six schools and colleges in the Academic Health Center, one of the most comprehensive facilities for health professionals in the nation, fostering interdisciplinary study, research and education. For more information, visit www.nursing.umn.edu.

Founded in 1929, the John A. Hartford Foundation is a committed champion of training, research and service system innovations that promote the health and independence of America's older adults.  Through its grant making, the Foundation seeks to strengthen the nation's capacity to provide effective, affordable care to this rapidly increasing older population by educating "aging-prepared" health professionals (physicians, nurses, social workers), and developing innovations that improve and better integrate health and supportive services.  The Foundation was established by John A. Hartford.  Mr. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, left the bulk of their estates to the Foundation upon their deaths in the 1950s.  Additional information about the Foundation and its programs is available at www.jhartfound.org.