The first edition of Fast Facts for the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner book is created specifically for Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AG-ACNP) students and new hires as well as for NPs who are changing positions or moving to a new organization. This book presents critical information at the NP’s fingertips for quick reference in clinical settings. It is designed to be kept in the pocket of a lab coat or handy on a computer on wheels and to be used during clinical rotations and in everyday practice. AG-ACNPs can use the book as review material for exams, a reference in clinical or simulation settings, writing case studies, and applying to patient care while in practice. It is unique in that it provides many tables and charts to provide large amounts of data in a condensed format. The book is designed to be a quick reference with helpful information in an easy-to-access format. It has quick tips on medication dosing, ordering diagnostic tests, documentation, and billing. Most importantly, many fine nuances and quick tips for each body system are included. While the AG-ACNP program provides a solid foundation, many important details cannot be memorized and take time and repetition to engrain into daily practice. To apply the concepts in the book, one requires a broader and deeper understanding of the pathophysiology, diagnoses, and treatments of diverse acute, acute on chronic, and critical care conditions.

The ability to reduce the burden of illness among older adults is necessary as individuals are living longer and experiencing lower rates of disability. Advanced practice nurses are skilled to relieve the burden of illness among older adults through specialized training and providing treatment in a variety of clinical settings. While geriatric-focused content exists, advanced practice nurses can benefit from clinical pearls specific for the advanced practice nurse providing holistic mental health care. This handbook offers advanced practice nurses, nurse educators, and graduate nursing students a reference that is intended to be supplemental to uniquely providing care for older adults which includes an overview of the aging process as well as assessing and developing treatment plans for older adults with mental health disorders. As older adults often work collaboratively with family, friends, caregivers, and health care providers, approaches to such relationships are explored and intended to serve as a resource for providing mental health care that can contribute to the overall success of treatment. The text provides an interprofessional box that encourages and assists the advanced practice nurse navigating through interdisciplinary collaborative practice. Such interprofessional partnerships can enhance care—particularly in cases of complexity. Advanced practice nurses can utilize the provided case studies to identify and modify service delivery that promotes evidence based practice.

This book makes a timely and essential contribution to professional training and is a welcome resource for those dedicated to improving long-term care services for older adults. It reflects the way society views the growing elderly population and the implications of this demographic trend for the field of long-term care. Long-term care continues to be the fastest growing segment of the healthcare industry; there is a critical need to educate and train a core of professional personnel with the knowledge and skills to address the complex issues in aging, health, and human services. The book aims to provide a useful reference of content information, effective practices, and model programs in elder care related to assisted living/residential care (AL/RC) administration. Similar to the first edition, this book is based on the core competencies required to operate assisted living communities. It contains five parts; each part focuses on a core competency in assisted living administration such as organizational management, human resources management, business and financial management, environmental management, and resident care management. The book embraces chapter features such as useful learning objectives, case studies, effective practices, and model programs in elder care that are relevant to assisted living communities. New chapters in this edition address topics such as inter-professional practice; home- and community-based services; information and communication technology; LGBTQ and other diverse groups; memory care; and palliative and hospice care. Importantly, the book is based on core competencies required to operate assisted living communities, and each of its five parts focuses on a core competency (i.e., domain of practice). The book serves as a useful reference for professionals who are associated with AL/RC organizations. It can also function as a primary textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses in gerontology, health administration, and long-term care administration that focus on assisted living/residential care administration.

The long-term care administrative profession has not received the attention that it requires to train future leaders for what likely lies ahead, and that needs to change. This book comes at a critical moment when demographics are changing rapidly. Millions of Americans are turning 75 years old every year, and many will need care, services, and supports. Skilled nursing facilities have become small hospitals. Assisted living communities are offering services more like the nursing homes of the past. The multitude of community and home-based services has grown exponentially, making it possible for older adults to remain in their homes longer. The book provides basic tools for successfully leading senior living organizations with a purposeful emphasis on the importance of exercising sound executive judgment and using the right tools for the job. It follows the National Association of Long Term Care Administrator Boards’ (NAB) current approach in describing the knowledge and skills covered. The book is divided into three sections. Section one provides an overview of the senior living field today. Section two addresses the nuts and bolts of operating the nonclinical support systems. Section three spreads the final NAB domain over the rest of the chapters, tying together theory and practical application with an intentional emphasis on leadership. Inserted throughout the chapters are relevant insights and recommendations shared by many of the profession’s most highly respected and accomplished leaders. The authors intend for this book to serve as much more than a study guide for preparing to pass a licensure examination. The chief goal of the book is to provide relevant guidance to both those entering the field and those wishing to strengthen their credentials and career options, to equip them with tools for remaining nimble in a field that is becoming more complex at increasing speed.

This third edition, has been written as a reference and certification test review guide for registered nurse (RNs) preparing for gerontological certification. It is also a useful text for students who are studying gerontology, teachers preparing gerontology classes, and RNs working with older adults. The book presents information about preparing for the certification exam, a comprehensive compilation of content specific to gerontology, and a test bank of questions specifically developed for the RN preparing for certification in gerontology. It focuses on topics specific to the aging population, such as demographics, myths about aging, theories of aging and nursing, communication skills geared for the older adult, teaching–learning principles that work well with older adults, and the history of gerontological nursing. The book identifies the health promotion needs of elders, such as nutrition, exercise, primary and secondary prevention strategies, and alternative and complementary healthcare practices used with older adults. It describes the environment, including safety and security, relocation, transportation, the importance of space, community-based resources, and residential facilities. It discusses spirituality and dying with special attention to advance directives, hospice and palliative care, and the grieving process. The book describes the acute and chronic physical illnesses most frequently experienced by older adults and discusses the cognitive and psychological disorders experienced by elders, including dementia, delirium, and depression. It covers common medications used by older adults, as well as discussions about polypharmacy, issues related to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, noncompliance, and adverse drug effects. It also discusses special topics such as pain, sexuality, and elder neglect and abuse, and covers descriptions of health policy issues and organizations that advocate for older adults. The book finally discusses the scope and standards of geriatric nursing practice relating to leadership and management, research, ethical and legal issues, and professional competency.

This second edition of the book, like the first, provides an overview of major issues associated with societal and global aging, paralleling the structure of many introductory social gerontology textbooks. Unlike most existing textbooks in the field, however, the discussion of each topic in this work is explicitly comparative, focusing on similarities and variations in the aging experience across nations, religions, and levels of economic and social development. The comparative perspective is enhanced further by topical essays and country-specific descriptions of aging policies, programs, and experiences. The book also introduces in this edition several important innovations not found in the previous version. First, the authors have dropped two chapters (The Welfare State and Disability and Active Life Expectancy), incorporating their content elsewhere. In addition, they split three earlier chapters (Health and Health Care Systems; Work and Retirement; and Families, Caregiving, and Community Support Systems) into two new chapters each, so now the authors include six separate chapters: Health Beliefs and Behavior, Health Care, Older Workers, Retirement and Pensions, Family Life, and Caregiving. Finally, because the first edition neglected two topics crucial to the lives of older people—physical environments and religion—the authors have added an entirely new chapter devoted to each. As for the first edition, the intended audiences remain students in undergraduate and graduate courses in global aging and their faculty. In addition, many of the topics addressed will also be of interest to faculty and students in undergraduate and graduate courses in the demography of aging and sociology of aging, as well as courses in gerontology taught with a comparative, international focus. The authors hope that it will serve to focus the attention of all gerontologists on the growth and value of the research and teaching going on in countries outside the United States and Europe.

This textbook has been developed for introductory courses in gerontology, as well as other courses with gerontology components. Gerontology is multifaceted and interdisciplinary. By necessity, it encompasses a broad range of subjects including psychology, sociology, architecture, biology, communications, economics, education, humanities, law, medicine, nursing, political science, public administration and policy, public health, public safety, social work, and vocational skills. Indeed, gerontology encompasses every academic discipline that in some way relates to the lives of older people in contemporary America. The book is divided into six parts. Part I focuses on the longevity dividend and the importance of mobilizing all sectors of the society to realize the opportunities and address the challenges of an aging society. Part II deals with physical and mental well-being. It discusses in detail the following: physical changes and the aging process; health and wellness for older adults; mental health, cognitive abilities, and aging; sexuality and aging; and death, dying, and bereavement. Part III focuses on economic and social aspects of aging. It focuses on economics, work, and retirement, explores family, friends, and social networks of older adults and discusses how older adults contribute to their communities and how they receive support. Part IV focuses on formal support systems. It discusses in detail the following: older adults giving and receiving support; medical conditions, assisted living, and long-term care; and medicare, medicaid, and medications. Part V focuses on Americans at risk for poor economic and health outcomes as they age — women, people of color, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. It also describes elder abuse and highlights its consequences. Part VI explores the many career opportunities within the field of gerontology and explains how the study of aging can be applied to any position in any field.

This book is a gift back to all the staff nurses, nurse leaders, nurse educators, and system leaders who have helped us think deeply about what it means to provide excellent care to older adults. Its goal is to tell the story of how Nurses Improving Care to the Hospitalized elderly evolved into the national and international program it is today and what some of the essential elements are to ensure program success. The book consists of twenty chapters. The book provides the historical underpinnings of the program and the nurse leaders who helped conceptualize and shape the program. It describes the approach to Nurses Improving Care for Healthcare System Elders (NICHE) and how the geriatric institutional assessment profile along with a readiness assessment for the geriatric resource nurses and assurance of leader ship support are crucial to have in place at the outset of the program. Careful assessment, person-centered care, planning, and reliable follow-through with the geriatric syndromes most likely to create difficulties for older people are at the heart of the program. The book relates to the business proposition for NICHE and how external regulations and consumers are central to refinement of the program on an ongoing basis. The international context is exceptionally important as one’s world becomes more and more integrated in one practice approaches and concepts. As global demography shifts toward older adults, every older person in their family should expect and demand age-friendly healthcare. NICHE is the backbone of an age-friendly health system and the very special vignettes provided by nurses who have traveled the geriatric resource nurse journey are inspiring.

The concept of justice is deeply entrenched in America’s psyche. This book assumes that advocates for older people can increase their effectiveness by achieving a clearer understanding of Americans’ not-so- self-evident nor inalienable rights. It explores how social justice and human rights principles have applied to older adults in the past and are viewed today. It examines how the interests of older adults compare to and are intertwined with those of other groups. In essence, the book frames elder justice as the intersection between aging policy and policy that promotes human rights and justice. Chapters two through five describes historical antecedents and precedents for elder justice and suggests how human rights and social justice principles have been embedded in what has traditionally been referred to as “aging policy”. These chapters look at other policies that significantly affect older people but do not fall under that rubric. They further explore ageism and its role in policy. Taken together, they offer two models or approaches that can guide the development of elder justice: the public health model and proposals for an international convention on the rights of older people. Chapters six through ten considers how elder justice principles can be applied. As examples, they focus on how individual rights and social justice apply to elder abuse prevention, to the justice system, in the consumer context, at the end of life, and with respect to people with diminished mental capacity. They also look at equity across generations and among older people. Chapter eleven calls for a new paradigm of elder justice and offers a rationale for why one is needed. Chapter twelve builds on other chapters to demonstrate how elder justice might translate into practice, training, policy, public awareness and engagement, and research.

This book encompasses the wide range of injury and assault cases requiring the collection of forensic evidence in preparation for a legal case. This includes different types of sexual assault and violence, child maltreatment, elder maltreatment, bullying, interpersonal violence, gunshot wounds, community violence, human trafficking, terrorist acts, and mass disasters. With supporting case scenarios, the book describes step-by-step how to collect evidence and the proper procedure for handing over evidence once it is collected. The book is organized into four parts comprising eighteen chapters and begins with a brief description of history of forensic nursing. It also describes providing testimony in forensic cases and trauma-informed care. The book provides insight into some common and not-so common aspects of forensic nursing and how nurses in any setting can implement forensic nursing skills in delivering optimal care to patients. Forensic nursing is a growing nursing field blending nursing science with forensic science, law, and criminology. Forensic nurses trained in this field gather findings such as documenting injuries, collecting biological fluids, and preserving evidence such as clothing from the assault.