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LOOKING AHEAD
E D U C A T I O N A L EXCELLENCE
We will be launching a new CGNE Scholars program in fall 2020. In line with our goals to engage students interested in gerontological nursing, the CGNE Scholars program will provide scholarship support, education opportunities, mentorship, and an introduction to doctoral education for up to four undergraduate/graduate nursing students. Nikki Hill is leading the development of the program, along with workgroup members Andrea Sillner and Ying-Ling Jao.
The Honorable Kathy Greenlee, former US Assistant Secretary on Aging will provide the keynote address entitled “Rural Health and Aging” for the 8th Annual CGNE Alumni & Friends Spring Brunch, scheduled for April 11, 2021. Aside from providing an educational opportunity, this event involves a celebration of our center’s accomplishments, a brunch meal, and an opportunity to connect with alumni, community members, and collaborative partners.
CGNE and the College of Nursing Outreach and Professional Development office have been co-sponsoring the semi-annual
Centre County Geriatric Interest Network
conferences for the past few years. The GIN provides opportunities to engage with administrators, nurses, and other professionals that have a similar vision for elder care. Stay tuned for fall 2020 and spring 2021 educational session announcements. Ann Kolanowski and collegues Gitlin and Lyons book Successful
Grant Writing for Health and Human Service
Professionals, Fifth Edition, an invaluable resource for graduate students, faculty, researchers, and health professionals, was released in May of 2020. See the Springer publishing website for details: https://www. springerpub.com/successful-grant-writing-forhealth-and-human-service-professionals-fifthedition-9780826148032.html.
Donna Fick will be presenting primary data from her Delirium READI (Researching efficient approaches for delirium identification) study at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, which will be held virtually from July 27-31, 2020 at no cost to participants. International investigators, clinicians and care researchers will come together online to discuss the latest studies, theories and discoveries that will help bring the world closer to breakthroughs in dementia science. Fick’s research explored clinician experiences and perspectives when screening for delirium in a person living with dementia in hospitalized patients.
Susan Loeb and colleagues are considering research and development to extend both
staff focused and peer caregiver focused trainings for multidisciplinary corrections
staff and/or persons who are incarcerated. This will include information pertaining to persons living with Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Dementias, as well as content relevant
to COVID-19. The focus of this project will be to develop evidence-based and contextually relevant content to addressing pressing health-related needs challenging corrections systems; to transform this content into highly interactive computer-based learning modules; to examine these trainings in diverse educational settings across the US; to advance educational development of corrections staff; and, to ultimately enhance the health and well-being of persons who reside in prisons and jails.
Marie Boltz has collaborated with a team of nationally recognized gerontological nursing Andrea Yevchak Sillner is the inaugural recipient of funding provided by an
endowment to CGNE for the advancement
of gerontology. With this new CGNE initiative, faculty and graduate students may apply for funding to support the development of a grant proposal or implementation of a pilot or bridge project that could lead to further study with potential NIH or other awards. The purpose of research study
Assessing Preferences for TechnologyAssisted Communication: A PersonCentered Approach in the Context of a
Pandemic (P-TAC Pandemic) is to examine the preferences for technology-assisted communication and variance of these preferences across groups of adults over the age of 65 years, throughout the US. The end result of the study will be a description of experts to create a new edition of Evidence-Based
Geriatric Nursing Protocols
for Best Practice. This book provides an overview of the latest evidence as well as protocols to translate research evidence into clinical care and operations. Ann Kolanowski provided the Preface and authors include several Penn State faculty and graduate students: Rachel
Arendacs, Marie Boltz, Donna Fick, Joanne
Roman Jones, Kat Phillips, and Andrea Yevchak Sillner. The book will be released in
S C I E N T I F I C R E S E A R C H A N D T R A N S L A T I O N O F BEST PRACTICE
2020. 48
how communications with a formal healthcare provider(s) (physicians, nurses, physician assistants, certified nurse practitioners) have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. This information may allow for development and tailoring of approaches/strategies for technology-assisted communications into an older adult’s plan of care, to enhance engagement with their formal healthcare providers and promote person-centered care.
In response to COVID-19 and the transition to telehealth, Age-Friendly Care, PA received supplemental funding to the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, a collaboration between the CON, CGNE, and the Primary Health Network (PHN). The funds will be used to purchase equipment and support PHN Community Health Workers
(CHWs) to facilitate telehealth visits, and those visits will be conducted by Penn State Nurse Practitioner (NP) students doing their clinical hours at two PHN sites in Mifflin and Mercer counties. Both NPs and CHWs will receive training in age- and dementia-friendly approaches to care from our core faculty. CHWs will provide Home TeleHealth Care Kits in order to maximize virtual visits between older adults, their caregivers, and providers. The kits will include educational materials as well as equipment such as thermometers, oximeters, and blood pressure monitors.
The Age-Friendly Care, PA team submitted a grant proposal for a COVID-19 related
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
Institute (PCORI) grant. Diane Berish,
Britney Wardecker, Marianne Adam,
Andrea Yevchak Sillner, Lisa Kitko and Judith Hupcey propose to work with our Primary Health Network collaborating partners to improve TeleHealth services by improving primary care providers' knowledge, competence, and confidence in conducting serious illness conversations during these virtual visits, which will enhance patientcentered care outcomes.
With her background in geriatrics and as a former Director of Nursing, Janice Whitaker has been invited by the College of Medicine ECHO Team to serve as co-investigator on another PCORI grant titled: COVID-19 Project
ECHO for Nursing Homes: A Patientcentered, Randomized-controlled Trial to Implement Infection Control and Quality of
Life Best Practices. As the title implies, this will involve a randomized controlled trial of an intervention of ECHO, an on-line educational model that emphasizes an “all teach- all learn” philosophy, a model also used by the Age-Friendly Care, PA program. If funded, the project will provide education and technical assistance to nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities to reduce infection rates and improve quality of care and life for older adults and caregivers.
Join us on May 13, 2021 for the 4th Annual
Translating Research to Innovations in
Practice Symposium. The symposium brings together nurse researchers from both academic and clinical settings to focus on the translation of evidence to health care practices. The intended purpose is to include research that provides an understanding of what makes an organization successful in the use of evidence-based practice and to provide an opportunity for clinical nurses to network with and share their research with others. The keynote presentation, “Integrating age friendly care in delirium assessment and prevention: A person-centered approach to care” will be provided by Donna Fick.
Marie Boltz was awarded a new RO1 grant From the National Institute on Aging. As an MPI, Boltz's study, Testing the Efficacy of
FFC-AC-EIT in Patients with Alzheimer’s
Disease and Related Dementias, will work with hospital staff to implement and disseminate function-focused care across diverse hospitals in Pennsylvania. Another MPI, Barbara Resnick PhD, RN, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP, professor of organizational systems and adult health, School of Nursing at the University of Maryland will lead the study in Maryland sites.
Nikki Hill and Andrea Yevchak Sillner are pursuing new projects to determine how we should be asking older adults and their care partners questions about memory
performance and memory concerns.
Aside from continuing to study the impact
of caregiver communication on apathy in nursing home residents with dementia,
Ying-Ling Jao will be collaborating with the
Architecture Engineering faculty at Penn State to develop a smart lighting intervention for nursing home residents with dementia.
Susan Loeb and colleagues NIH/NIA grant application was recently funded. The Phase II study aims to refine and extend the Inmates Care modules into a full scale highlyinteractive Computer-Based Training (CBT) that is congruent with the correctional setting; is feasible in light of the myriad of safety and security constraints in prisons in general and regarding inmate use of electronics in particular; and, is usable by incarcerated adults, many of whom do not have high-school graduate reading levels. Based on findings from our successful STTR Phase I, our earlier research focused on inmate peer caregivers; current and future recipients of peer care in prison; and, what we learned in our efficiency of healthcare study. The study is conducted in collaboration with Valerie Myers.
Britney Wardecker plans to write a grant to study correlations and predictors of LGBTQ
older adults’ decisions to complete advance
care directives, such as living wills, durable power of attorneys for healthcare, and do-notresuscitate orders. LGBTQ older adults are more likely than non-LGBTQ counterparts to report chronic health conditions, and thus, it may be critical for them to have plans in place so their end-of-life wishes can be respected and fulfilled.
Kimberly VanHaitsma is part of a team that is developing ComPASS, a mobile responsive
website based on the Preferences for
Everyday Living Inventory (PELI). This app will be provided free to thousands of US nursing homes to help staff capture residents’ preferences and gauge their satisfaction via smart phones, tablets and computers. Mather LifeWays recently recognized the value of this application for future machine learning initiatives to advance person-centered care. Recently, Ohio’s Department of Medicaid approved a new three-year project (total award to Miami University: $1.3 million, 10/1/19-10/30/22), which focuses on
improving the quality of care and quality of life of nursing home residents living with
dementia. As co-PI on this team, VanHaitsma will assist in the development of resources that enhance nursing home capabilities in leadership, communication, training and quality assurance, as well as strengthen technological solutions for data collection and analysis to support care infrastructure.
Donna Fick, Marie Boltz, Edward
Marcantonio from Harvard, and team are in the final year (NCE) of their NIA funded grant (total award $2.4 million as MPI) and plan to submit a renewal to the National Institute on Aging in 2020 for their work on delirium screening and management at the bedside. Their research will further test improvements for quick and reliable delirium screening by front-line providers including nursing assistants. In addition, Fick, Wes Ely from Vanderbilt and Eva Zeisky, will host the third year of the Delirium Boot Camp, October 28- 29, 2020 as a virtual event for the Network for
Investigation of Delirium Unifying Scientists
(NIDUS) NIA funded R24 grant https:// deliriumnetwork.org/
On behalf of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), Donna Fick received an invitation from Victor Dzau, NAM President, and Mark McClellan, Director of the DukeMargolis Center for Health Policy, to participate as a co-author for a paper which will be published in Health Affairs in early 2021 as part of the next iteration of the NAM initiative Vital Directions for Health and Health Care. The NAM stewarded the development of Vital Directions prior to the last presidential election in 2016, to identify opportunities to substantially improve the health and well-being of Americans, the
quality of care delivered, and the contributions of science and technology. In anticipation of the upcoming election in 2020, the NAM is undertaking a more abbreviated, but important, updated assessment of key trends in health and health care. Health Affairs will publish a series of papers addressing high priority challenges for the next Administration, with each reviewing trends, analysis of the challenge, and potential actions. The papers will be discussed in detail with policymakers and other key stakeholders preparing for, and engaging with, the next Administration. In collaboration with Morgann McAfee, Marketing and Creative Services Manager for our college, the leadership team will continue to develop and implement a CGNE
Marketing, Media, and Communications
Plan to raise awareness and visibility of our center. Under the direction of Susan Kukic, Director of Development and Alumni Relations for the College of Nursing, we also plan to create a more specific CGNE Development Plan to promote and ensure the sustainability of our center. CGNE continually seeks new and innovative ways to engage undergraduate students with our center and, more importantly, in becoming interested and passionate about gerontology! This year, Janice Whitaker and Donna Fick plan to integrate strategies from the Old People Are Cool campaign into sessions with the SNAPS (Student Nurses Association at Penn State), locally and at the regional convention! In 2020, Fick will also start a 2nd term (reappointed) to the National Academy of Medicine forum on Aging, Disability and Independence. This work is important now more than ever, as older adults and persons with disabilities face rationing of care issues, ageism and ableism in the midst of a global pandemic. Read more about the work of the forum and watch the webinar on COVID-19 and disabilities. Free to the public and accessible for the disabled. https://www. nationalacademies.org/our-work/forum-on
S E R V I C E , S T R A T E G I C P A R T N E R S H I P S A N D SUSTAINABILITY
aging-disability-and-independence Janice Whitaker and Erica Husser have been and will continue to participate in the Intergenerational Think Tank meetings led by Matt Kaplan, Professor of Intergenerational Programs and Aging, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education at Penn State. CGNE strives to promote a more age-friendly university, we plan to integrate intergenerational strategies into current programs, such as our Gero Gift Givers program, which collects and distributes donated gifts to older adults living in assisted living communities during the holidays.
Our CGNE leadership team will continue to serve on various local, statewide, national, and international boards, committees, and organizations. This enables us to share expertise, engage in dialogue and solve problems, and inform policy and practice standards. We plan to organize and refine our strategic partnerships, prioritize action steps, and identify ways to increase our impact.
