Growing numbers of nurses are working in long-term care and playing a major role in the provision of long-term care services. This book provides an overview of the unique aspects of long-term care with a specific focus on nurses working in nursing home and assisted living settings. It offers a review of the unique aspects and settings for long-term care, special needs of the population served, and clinical challenges. The book is divided into five parts. The first part provides the basics of long-term care with chapters covering nursing responsibilities, regulations, and cultural change. The nursing process is discussed in Part II, which focuses on the minimum data set (MDS), assessment needs beyond the MDS, assessment skills, creative care plans, person-centered care and family care. The challenges involved in clinical settings such as promotion of medication safety, and reduction of medication errors and common risks are dealt with in the third section. As a significant number of individuals who need long-term care services have cognitive impairment, Section IV is devoted to the care of residents with dementias. Management skills, legal risks, and issues pertaining to surveys are presented in Section V. In recognition of the stresses that can arise in long-term care nursing, a chapter is dedicated to the important topic of self-care.

Palliative care is considered a subspecialty of medicine and nursing, with certifications offered to insure the highest quality of care that can be offered to those with acute, chronic, progressive, life-altering, or life-threatening diseases. Palliative and hospice care are on the same continuum. Hospice care is offered in the last 6 months of life, whereas palliative care is offered earlier, at the time of diagnosis, with any diagnosis that can eventually lead to death. This book gives palliative care and hospice nurses the advanced knowledge they need, beyond their undergraduate and graduate nursing education, to incorporate advanced empirical, aesthetic, ethical, and personal knowledge into their nursing practice. The book is organized into four sections comprising 27 chapters. Section I articulates the purpose and value of palliative care and hospice nursing and the revolution across America and the world, which demands the relief of suffering and every effort to promote quality of life until its end. Section II emphasizes on the care for the whole person and family. The chapters on culture and spirituality, and sexuality will help to recognize that a person is more than a physical body. The art of communication, the promotion of health, and holistic therapies are also taught. Section III focuses on advancing one’s knowledge of life-threatening diseases such as cancer, end-stage heart disease, end-stage heart disease, end-stage renal disease, end-stage liver disease, chronic lung disease, neurological disorders, HIV/AIDS. Section IV deals with effective management of symptoms such as dyspnea, anxiety, depression, delirium, posttraumatic stress disorders, gastrointestinal symptoms, fatigue, and skin alterations by pharmacologic, nonpharmacologic, and complementary therapies. In the peri-death chapter, nurses will learn how their presence at the deathbed can imprint a memory that replaces fear with calm, suffering with relief, and sorrow with abundant appreciation and love.

This book is an effort to combine the presentation of chronic health conditions experienced by aging patients with pharmacologic considerations that are unique to this population. Nurse practitioners are increasingly responsible for delivering care to elderly patients in primary care who present with complex conditions, medication regimens, and numerous specialty providers. This reference will provide a “big picture” look at how to approach pharmacotherapy and present principles to guide decision-making so that adverse drug events may be prevented. An evidence-based, quick-access reference for adult gerontology nurse practitioners and related health care providers, this book describes a holistic, patient-centered approach to prescribing drugs to older adults. Comprehensive yet concise writing distills timely guidance on the complexities of safely prescribing to this unique population. The book opens with physiologic changes and assessment considerations for older adults, followed by a discussion of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, then a final section on guidelines for drug selection, drug interactions, and multimorbidities. Each chapter presents information in a consistent, easy-to-read template. Patient Care Pearls alert readers to crucial information and relevant case studies with examples of inappropriate medical prescribing provide context for drug delivery. Key points and chapter summaries help reinforce information. Additional features include the provision of guidelines for psychotropic medications in long-term care facilities, special considerations for frail older adults, and the role of pharmacists as a resource for other practitioners.

Nurses in clinical settings and nonclinical support roles face pressing clinical and operational issues in practice. With the face of health also changing rapidly, the unforeseen problem rears its head every day. To meet new and unexpected challenges requires explicit knowledge about emerging technologies—innovative, smart technologies developed to function intelligently, with more efficiency and accuracy. For this reason, the finer points of these technologies need understanding by practicing nurses, nursing leaders, and nurses teaching health information technology (IT), and informatics courses. This book serves to do that. It provides information about exciting areas of technology that has great potential to improve patient care. Subjects include Big Data, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented realities, Internet of Things, precision health, and the future of emerging technologies in nursing practice. There is also discussion of the shift of healthcare delivery into the community, with an outlook on improving outcomes and enhancing practice. What makes this book unique is the examination of healthcare as a technology industry, critical divergent collaborations, and the impetus of healthcare innovation. Also, Big Data is thoughtfully utilized to provide nurse value and act as the source of all emerging technologies. The book includes details about how each emerging technology drives decision making in tandem with the nursing process and critical thinking and how the novel technologies will move care delivery into the community and become a catalyst in health consumerism and the sharing economy. The book is a blueprint for a new direction for nurses in health IT, and what it will become in the next decade and the 21st century.

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.

Despite the increasing awareness of delirium as a cause of altered mental status, many of these patients will not be diagnosed as such. This book has evolved out of more than four decades of the author's gerontological nursing experiences caring for people with dementia in a wide range of clinical settings, including acute care, long-term care, and home and community settings. The basic premise is that although the short-term nature of the care setting focuses on nursing interventions for immediate medical problems, nurses have numerous opportunities to incorporate dementia-specific interventions in care plans. The second edition includes two new chapters on the Emotional Needs of People with Dementia and Self-Neglect and Elder Abuse. The book has eighteen chapters organized into six parts. Part I discuss types of dementia and other commonly occurring conditions that have similar manifestations; the chapters focus on nursing responsibilities for assessment and management of patients whose mental status is altered by underlying conditions such as dementia or delirium. Part II describes how nurses can apply a person-centered approach to address dementia-related issues. Part III discusses nursing care issues at various stages of dementia, and Part IV provides information about addressing emotional and behavioral issues. Part V describes considerations related to specific care settings and provides information about nursing strategies for daily care, safety, and pain. Chapters in Part VI are a guide to broader aspects of care for people with dementia, including self-neglect and elder abuse and ethical and legal issues. The last chapter discusses nursing strategies to address the needs of caregivers of people with dementia. A major emphasis throughout the text is on relatively simple interventions that nurses can incorporate in their discharge plans to teach families and care partners about sources of information and support to address the needs of people with dementia.

Every nurse cares for patients facing end-of-life issues at some point in their career. For some nurses, working with terminally ill patients is an infrequent, yet important experience. For others, it is part of their daily nursing work. Fast Facts for the Hospice Nurse: A Concise Guide to End-of-Life Care, Second edition, like the first edition, is a valuable, up-to-date resource for all nurses whether they work with terminally ill patients on a daily basis or only occasionally. This book is for nurses who are seeking to specialize in hospice, those who work in long-term care settings, postacute care settings, acute care setting, and those who are seeking to enhance their knowledge of end-of-life care within other specialties. This second edition has been thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded. New information has been added on the role of the hospice nurse as case manager, cultural issues, such as working with members of the LGBTQ+ community, and special communication considerations, such as working with deaf and hard of hearing patients and those who have limited English proficiency. In terms of symptom management at the end of life, new chapters have been added on the use of cannabis, nonpharmacological pain management interventions, wound care, care of the dying patient, and postmortem care. Each section of the second edition of this book focuses on nursing care at the end of life and offers concise, yet thorough, coverage of important topics. Throughout the book, numerous resources are provided and ‘Fast Facts’ boxes are used to highlight important pieces of information. Treatment options are also included in tables and figures throughout the book. Screening tools for depression, anxiety, and risk for wounds are included as well as scales that are important in hospice care, such as the Palliative Performance Scale and the Karnofsky Performance Scale.

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.

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.

Across healthcare settings, older adults represent the majority of consumers served. They present with the most clinically and socially complex situations and thus require nurses to possess highly developed assessment competencies, critical thinking abilities, and relationship-based skills. Nurses have an enormous responsibility when providing care to older adults in this rapidly changing healthcare environment with its increasing regulatory requirements, variable staffing levels, and unpredictable reimbursement. Nurses also have an amazing opportunity to positively change the daily experiences and health of older adults. As in the previous editions, authors present up-to-date information on assessment and interventions for common health problems and geriatric syndromes. They expanded their robust clinical content to include evidence based approaches to support LGBTQ elders, persons living with dementia and their families, and older adults living with HIV. In this sixth edition, the authors provide guidelines that are developed by experts on the topics of each chapter and are based on the best available evidence. A systematic method, the AGREE (Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation) process, was used to evaluate the protocols and identify a process to help the reader to improve the validity of the book’s content.