TRANSFORM CURRICULUM
Curriculum Grants in Nursing
2001-2013 The Hartford Foundation provided almost $9 million in funding to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) to embed aging content into geriatric nursing programs. This included funding to support the recruitment of students into geriatric advanced practice nursing programs and the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium (GNEC), which fostered geriatric content development in senior-level undergraduate nursing courses and provided faculty with training and materialsto train others at their home schools. More recently, funding supported AACN to facilitate the merging of adult and gerontological nursing curricula at the advanced practice nursing level with resources and training for schools of nursing facing this mandatory change.
The AACN added geriatrics to its set of core competencies expected of all graduates of baccalaureate nursing programs.
The GNEC was very effective. A total of 808 nursing faculty from 418 institutions (representing 69 percent of nursing programs in the United States) attended Faculty Development Institutes where GNEC offered training in geriatric curricula.
After two years, 82 percent of participating institutions revised and enhanced senior-level nursing courses with the evidence-based curricular material on caring for older adults and new courses in geriatric nursing were created. At least 70 percent of the revised and enhanced courses are required by their institutional programs, as are 43 percent of the stand-alone courses.
As a result, thousands of nursing students, in nearly half the nursing schools in the country, will be exposed to best practices in geriatric care across a wide range of course offerings.
(Below) Donald Bailey, Jr., PhD, RN, Associate Professor at Duke University School of Nursing, and a Fagin Fellow (2003-2005), teaches gerontologic nursing to students in the field and in the classroom.
(Above ) Sarah H. Kagan, PhD, RN, Professor of Gerontological Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, examines a patient.
(Below) Nursing students interview a participant in a meal program at a community center in Iowa. Lazelle E. Benefield, PhD, RN, Director of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Gerontological nurses apply a body of specialized knowledge and skills to provide nursing care that meets the unique needs of older adults. They are able to detect problems early and initiate care that often prevents more serious conditions or minimizes their effects.
Patricia G. Archbold, DNSc, RNFormer Director
Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Initiative The impetus behind the BAGNC Alumni Association was an opportunity to give back to the Hartford Foundation and the BAGNC program for the commitment and confidence theyve placed in us as nurses. Our goal is to support each other in our scholarship and practice and to share resources and expertise. Adriana Perez, PhD, RN, ANP
Assistant Professor and Southwest Borderlands Scholar
Co-Director
Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence
Arizona State University Without the Hartford Foundation, the sea change that created a critical mass of gerontological nurses would not have been possible. J. Taylor Harden, RN, PhD
Executive Director
National Hartford Centers of Gerontological Nursing Excellence