Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
 at Case Western Reserve University
 "Geriatric Nursing Excellence"

 Beverly Roberts, PhD, RN, FAAN

The purpose of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing  proposal is to strengthen the School’s capacity to prepare geriatric nursing leaders and thus enhance the health and quality of life of older adults. To achieve this purpose, the School will develop initiatives for its academic and research programs in gerontology and strengthen collaborations with other disciplines and institutions in the delivery of health care to older adults. These initiatives will build on more traditional approaches to geriatric nursing education in that they will focus on providing both state-of-the art knowledge and establishing a life-long commitment to geriatrics.

Directed by Beverly Roberts, RN, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, and building on our established reputation in geriatric nursing, funding from this 3-year John A. Hartford Foundation initiative will be used to improve current geriatric nursing practice through the following educational and research goals and strategies:

Goal 1. Add and expand geriatric courses in the Bolton School curricula:

1. Add two courses to the curricula, Aging in Health and Illness, a required course for the BSN and ND students and Concepts and Management in Geriatric Nursing, a clinical preceptorship course for upper level BSN students.
2. Incorporate core geriatric principles into the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Nurse Practitioner (NP) courses and modify the current Geriatric NP program to increase geriatric mental health content and include the consultative and management roles of the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS).

  Goal 2. Increase innovative scholarship and leadership in geriatric nursing through:

1. Tuition scholarship support for three ND or PhD students, plus funding for two fast track BSN-PhD students.
2. Establishment of two Scholars Programs focused on the application of geriatric scholarship and leadership: the Best Practices Scholars Program and the Quality Scholars Program.