NICHE Hospitals Create Innovative Models for Improved Older-Adult Care

In this issue of Geriatric Nursing, Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) will begin to present approaches and lessons learned from NICHE sites in their efforts to improve care to older adults. NICHE grew out of an initiative by Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, now dean of New York University College of Nursing, to develop the geriatric resource nurse model in 1981 at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. In 1992, Dr. Fulmer with Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, received funding from The John A. Hartford Foundation to expand this model into a systemwide approach through which hospitals would receive support in making comprehensive changes to improve care of older adults. In 2007, the Hartford Institute received funding from Atlantic Philanthropies (U.S. Ageing Programme) to expand its organizational capacity. The principal investigator for this grant is Elizabeth C. Capezuti, professor of nursing, codirector of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, and faculty director of NICHE. Marie Boltz, PhD, RN, is practice director of NICHE, and Barbara Bricoli, MPA, is the operations director. Amid the growth of NICHE, a number of hospitals have had substantial success in embedding NICHE principles comprehensively across settings and in tracking their impact. At the upcoming NICHE conference, April 21–23, 2010, in Baltimore, hospitals will present their geriatric programs conceived through NICHE. The following examples demonstrate the very different and exciting initiatives that have been launched within the NICHE framework: