Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing:
Making Best Geriatric Practice Standard Practice

Older adults are the core business of American health care, and it is nurses who tie together the diagnostic and therapeutic elements of good care. Nurses—in all health care settings —are critical in creating the most effective care for older Americans. The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, located at New York University, is a national resource dedicated to providing the tools to embed the knowledge and skills for caring for a rapidly increasing aging population within the nursing profession.

With the help of the Hartford Institute, a major project of the John A. Hartford Foundation since 1996, nurses in almost every specialty are realizing that there are age-related considerations they must take into account when treating older adults. For example, the older patients of cardiac care, oncology, or critical care nurses are likely to metabolize prescribed drugs differently than younger patients, and older patients’ symptoms of common health problems may be different, as well.

Targeting both the individual nurse and hospital-based practice, the Institute has created authoritative, evidence-based resources for nursing education, practice, research, and policy. The combined effect has been to transform the nursing profession’s abilities and willingness to work with older adults. To learn more, please see this excerpt from our 2006 Annual Report.