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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 18, 2002 CONTACT:
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ANA Receives $5 Million Grant to Enhance Nurse Competence in Care of the Aging
Washington, DC -- The American Nurses Association (ANA), through the American Nurses Foundation (ANF), has been awarded a $5 million grant to improve the quality of health care by enhancing the competence of nurses to care for aging adults. Funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and implemented through a strategic alliance between ANA and the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, the five-year grant, "Enhancing Geriatric Competence of Specialty Nurses," will be dedicated to assisting more than 400,000 nurses to complement their specialty practice in delivering care to aging adults. The ANA will work with specialty nursing organizations to implement the grant. The grant has three goals:
1) to create permanent structures for geriatric activities in specialty nursing associations;
2) to promote gerontological certification of specialty nurses; and
3) to develop a web-based comprehensive geriatric nursing resource center.
"The ANA is excited to be receiving such a generous award. With the bulk of the nation's baby boomers reaching retirement within the next 10 years and compelling evidence signaling a nursing shortage of historic proportions, the time to tackle this problem is now," said ANA President Barbara Blakeney, MS, RN, CS, ANP.
"The funding provided by this grant will go a long way toward enhancing the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for providing care to this growing population segment," said Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, director of the Hartford Institute.
In the course of their professional careers, almost all nurses care for older adults. According to projections, the size of the population older than age 65 will double over the next 30 years, growing to 70 million by 2030, with persons over age 85, who place the greatest demand by far on health care services, representing the fastest growing segment of this population. Compounding the problem is the nation's growing nursing shortage. According to a 1999 Harris poll, more than half of Americans believe the quality of health care already is affected "a great deal" by a current shortage of nurses. And Bureau of Labor Statistics figures further reveal that this shortage will soon reach crisis proportions, with more than one million new nurses needed by the year 2010.
Although geriatric care is one of the fastest growing segments of nursing, few nurses are adequately prepared. With less than 1 percent of nurses having received geriatric nursing certification, that number is a far cry from the number of nurses who are needed to be competent to care for the nation's escalating aging population.
ANA, in collaboration with the ANF, will be the principal grant agent. The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) will promote gerontological nursing certification at both the generalist and specialist levels. The partnership between ANA and the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing will assure the infusion of best practices in the care of aging adults by nurses who have expertise in other specialty areas.
The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing is housed at New York University, in the Steinhardt School of Education, Division of Nursing. The Hartford Institute is the only nurse-led national institute dedicated to improving the competency of nurses who care for older adults.
The Atlantic Philanthropies work globally to identify and support leaders, institutions, and organizations dedicated to learning, knowledge-building and solving pressing social problems. The Atlantic Philanthropies have a longstanding interest in aging.
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ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the nation's 2.7 million Registered Nurses through its 54 constituent associations. ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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