Patients and staff in nursing homes and hospital geriatric units are marginalized in importance and devalued within the health care system. These negative perceptions within and outside the profession have devastating consequences for generating interest in geriatrics among nursing students, for recruiting nurses to practice in geriatric settings, for garnering support for geriatric nursing research, and for promoting public policy favorable to geriatric nursing. Thus, the larger nursing, health care, and lay communities are relatively ignorant of excellence in geriatric nursing education, care, and research. We see the need for the Hartford Institute to pursue opportunities to celebrate excellence in geriatric nursing by establishing awards in collaboration with the prestigious national nursing and other professional organizations. The Institute also needs to explore opportunities to solicit and publically showcase exemplary nursing care from older patients themselves and from their families.
Many hands make light work.
We have been struck by the profound and differing forces that are shaping relationships among geriatric health care professionals, within institutions of higher education, and among the professional organizations that represent large numbers of geriatric health care professionals. We see the Institute's role as one of encouraging a rational debate among health care professionals to maximize collaboration to benefit elderly patients. Our experiences with other programs and the Institute's effort to develop a program in geriatric nursing integrating elements of the NYU Division of Nursing and the Department of Nursing at the Medical Center have taught us that effective partnerships evolve slowly from a sense of trust and common purpose. Given the effort required, we need to work with partners whose mission is similar to that of the Hartford Institute. Conversely, we need to guard against hasty or casual partnerships that might damage the integrity or compromise the Lesson 5.