Alison E. Kris - Gerontological Nurse Certification Review, Second Edition

Alison E. Kris, PhD, RN, is an associate professor of nursing at Fairfield University where she has taught numerous courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including research methods, biostatistics, geriatrics, pathophysiology, and pharmacology. She has participated in interdisciplinary research through Fairfield Universitys Integrative Nursing and Health Studies Initiative, where she directed a team of undergraduate research assistants and supervised doctoral-level coursework and undergraduate theses. She has extensive research and clinical experience and has published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters. She received her bachelor of science in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania; her PhD from the University of California, San Francisco; and she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the John A. Hartford Foundation, which she completed at the University of California, San Francisco.

Alison E. Kris, PhD, RN

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ISBN: 978-0-8261-3017-4

e-book ISBN: 978-0-8261-3018-1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kris, Alison E., author.

Gerontological nurse certification review / Alison E. Kris. Second edition.

p. ; cm.

Preceded by: Gerontological nurse certification review / Meredith Wallace, Sheila Grossman. c2008.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8261-3017-4 ISBN 978-0-8261-3018-1 (e-book)

I. Kazer, Meredith Wallace Gerontological nurse certification review. Preceded by (work): II. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Geriatric Nursing Examination Questions. 2. Geriatric Assessment Examination Questions. WY 18.2]

RC954

618.970231 dc23

2015000193

Printed in the United States of America by Bradford & Bigelow.

For several decades, policy experts and health care professionals have made projections regarding the coming baby boomer bubble of an aging American population, detailing dramatic changes in the size and composition of this American population and the challenges this will create for all health care professionals. Those projections have come to fruition, creating an urgent need for health care professionals, and nurses in particular, to have a strong base of knowledge and skills in care of older adults. Demographic realities will create an increase of adults older than the age of 65 in the very near term, adding to the increasing number of individuals in this country who are termed the oldest old.

The aging of America has created a dynamic and changing perspective on aging. Older adults are living longer while maintaining full employment, and active social and community lives. However, this longevity is accompanied by a concurrent increase in chronic illnesses treated with sophisticated technological and pharmacological interventions. This enormously complex array of treatments creates the need for a health professional workforce that is prepared to meet the unique physiological and psychosocial needs of older adults. The unique skill sets that are required to provide safe, high-quality, and effective care to older adults are not intuitively acquired, but rather come only from a focused approach to developing new views and knowledge to shape and define how care is delivered to the older adult.

Unfortunately, despite the growth in the population of older adults, the nursing profession has not seen a concomitant increase in the proportion of the nursing workforce with a specialization in geriatrics. Increasingly, however, nurses and other professionals are seeking the specific skill sets necessary to deliver high-quality care to older adults. Much of the enhanced focus on geriatrics comes as a result of the important and substantial support that has been made available to the nursing profession by the John A. Hartford Foundation. Through this support, an enhanced focus on both geriatric practice and research has blossomed in the profession, and nursing professionals have increasingly sought the specific knowledge and skills necessary to meet this challenge. As nurses seek this knowledge, they also seek professional validation as a specialized geriatric clinician represented by certification by a national body. Certification is an external validation of competence to meet specific and important needs and is the hallmark of excellence in nursing practice.

This fully updated publication is an important addition to the resources available for nurses who seek certification as geriatric clinicians. This resource, designed for the generalist baccalaureate-educated nursing clinician who desires validation through expert knowledge and skills for the care of the older adult, also recognizes the reality of practice. Generalist practice is almost uniformly geriatric practice. The preponderance of older adults in todays acute care facilities, long-term care settings, and communities should create awareness among all nursing professionals that the knowledge and skills assessed through geriatric certification are a basic foundation for safe practice today.