Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy Implementation

Grant Summary

The John A. Hartford Foundation has made a grant to Sigma Theta Tau, the honor society for nursing, to implement the Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy program, which will increase the organization's capacity to meet the needs of an aging population and will prepare and position nurses in leadership roles within health care delivery settings to improve the quality of care for older patients and their families. Funding to Sigma Theta Tau, the honor society of nursing representing 130,000 members, will be used to enhance geriatric knowledge among Sigma Theta Tau members through biennial meetings, a geriatric interest group, and dissemination of evidence-based geriatric practice guidelines. Funding will also be used to implement the Geriatric Nursing Leadership Academy model, which is based in part on their successful leadership academy for maternal child nurses. The 18-month training academy will develop the leadership and management skills of 20 competitively chosen nurse leaders across the country, who will implement geriatric care delivery improvement projects in their hospitals, nursing homes and other settings, improving care for tens of thousands of older patients. A national network of prominent nurse mentors will be used to provide expertise to the academy participants.