Linking Education and Practice

Education and Practice

 

See associated grant program:
Honoring the Wishes of Nursing Home Residents

During the past three decades, the Foundation invested $341 million supporting the geriatrics education of physicians, nurses, and social workers by developing faculty and curriculum to address broad basic competencies. Now, we’re focusing on new ways to connect education and training with improvements in the way care is delivered to older adults and their families.

With all of the changes happening in health care, it is imperative that our educational institutions are closely connected to the changing realities of practice on the ground. Right now huge investments are being made in reshaping health care delivery through new approaches to care funded by mechanisms such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes. However, it is just as important to re-educate current practitioners as it is to pay them differently if we are to achieve higher-quality, lower-cost care. While our hopes for improved care at a lower cost are pinned on better “coordination” of care between providers and settings, few of today’s practitioners had training in interprofessional, collaborative practice. That’s why we are supporting projects that foster an open, two-way relationship between educational leaders—who must share the latest knowledge and research with students and health care professionals in the field—and practitioners—who must inform educators about the needs of the rapidly growing older adult population with complex medical and social needs.

The Linking Education and Practice portfolio gives special preference to interdisciplinary projects that focus on two areas:

  • Redesigning educational programs to keep pace with the evolving nature of care delivery, such as preparing health professionals to work together as effective team members and collaborators with colleagues in other disciplines.
  • Supporting educational programs, including continuing education, that provide practitioners with additional geriatric knowledge and training in their specific practice setting.

Examples include:

Supervisory Leaders in Aging

Funding: $1,055,297 over three years to the National Association of Social Workers.

What It Does: Launches, implements, and sustains an advanced training program that equips social work supervisors with geriatric knowledge and supervisory skills needed to strengthen social work practice on the front lines of health care service delivery to older adults.

Improving the Health of Older Adults Using Integrated Networks for Medical Care and Social Services

Funding: $2,068,500 over three years to the Partners in Care Foundation, Inc.

What It Does: Develops two large-scale, prototype networks that link community-based, social service agencies to the health care sector, with the goal of establishing an integrated medical and social services delivery system that provides comprehensive, coordinated, and appropriate care to older people. This grant also seeks to build the business acumen needed in the new integrated care environment so the prototype sites can form their new knowledge and competencies into concrete products that can be shared with other social service agencies throughout the country.

Partners: Tufts Health Plan Foundation, Archstone Foundation, The SCAN Foundation, Health Foundation of South Florida, Health Foundation for Western and Central New York, and the Administration for Community Living.

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