UW School of Nursing—Healthy Aging and Gerontology

UW School of Nursing is one of the seven Schools of Nursing included in the Nursing School Geriatric Investment Program. Made possible by the vision and support of the John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF), the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Program is designed to develop geriatric nursing leaders and advance geriatric nursing research and practice.

The John A. Hartford Foundation of New York City is a private philanthropy established in 1929 by John A. Hartford. Mr. Hartford and his brother, George L. Hartford, both former chief executives of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, left the bulk of their estates to the foundation in the 1950's. Since 1995 the Foundation has focused extensively on enhancing the nation's capacity to provide effective and affordable care to its growing older adult population. They do this through grant making related to enhancing geriatric research and training, as well as grant making related to integrating and improving health services for adults.

Three grants from the John A. Hartford Foundation are helping to build geriatric nursing education and practice at the University of Washington:

1) The Geriatric Investment Program is a three-year award to enhance geriatric content in the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral curricula, to provide opportunities for faculty development in geriatrics, and to develop geriatric course work for practicing nurses in long term care facilities.

2) The Geriatric Nursing Education Project, also a three-year program, is focused entirely on undergraduate education. Recognizing that part of effective nursing care is understanding the patient, this unique funding opportunity will expose students to the experience of aging using cross-curriculum experiences in the arts.

3) A third grant from The John A. Hartford Foundation and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing will provide scholarship support to five geriatric nurse practitioner students over a
three-year period.

Under the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Scholars & Fellows Program, the John A. Hartford Foundation has awarded pre- and post-doctoral scholarships in gerontological nursing research for the following scholars from the UW School of Nursing.

Elena O. Siegel, Ph(c), MN, BS-Bus Adm, RN is a 2004-2006 John A. Hartford Foundation Building Geriatric Nursing Capacity Pre-doctoral Scholar. Her research interests target health care systems and organizational/environmental characteristics of long-term care settings for older adults. Her dissertation research explores the nurse's role as a supervisor of direct care workers in skilled nursing facilities, within a context of the organizational environments in which these nurses work.

Lynette Jones ’97 Ph.D., RN, founder and chair of her own software company, Point-of-Care Ware, was awarded the 2002 John A Hartford Building Academic Nursing Capacity MBA Scholarship. Point of CareWare develops software for a variety of handheld devices which help long term care providers, family members and friends provide better care to their aging loved ones. Lynette is in the Executive MBA Program in the UW School of Business.

Lissi Hansen '01 Ph.D., RN, is a post-doctoral fellow working with Associate Professor Sarah Shannon to develop an instrument for assessing family caregivers’ experiences assisting with end-of-life decision making. She was awarded a 2001-2003 John A. Hartford Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Post-doctoral Scholarship.

The purpose of the Creating Careers in Geriatric Advanced Practice Nursing award is to provide opportunities for graduate nursing students to build and sustain careers in geriatric advanced practice nursing. This award is highly competitive. Applicants for this scholarship must demonstrate, through a written statement and a personal interview, their passion for and commitment to care of older adults. Once selected, awardees are required to register as full time students each quarter, and to successfully pass the ANCC Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination upon completion of the program. This scholarship provides financial aid for seven academic quarters of full time study.

Maia Syfers, RN, BSN "I am interested both in acute care management of health and also health education and disease prevention. I have worked as a high school nurse and s a staff nurse in neurology with adolescent, adult and geriatric patients, and enjoy the scope of nursing I have been exposed to in these diverse positions. I have really enjoyed working with older patients, and felt pursuing more education in this field would be very rewarding."

Viet Nguyen, RN, BSN "With the advance of technology, people are living longer. More vulnerable elders suffer from poor health status, less access to healthcare, and a higher rate of illness. I enjoy being an integral part of patients' recovery and their continued wellness. I am passionate about working with the elder population - they have so much to offer in life. My future career goals are to be a geriatric nurse practitioner and a geriatric clinical instructor. I believe geriatric education needs to be fostered in the curriculum. As a teacher, I would like to pass on my passion and knowledge to improve the care of the geriatric population."

Karen Gilbert, RN, BSN
"I would like to bring to my work as a geriatric nurse practitioner, additional knowledge and experience in palliative care. I would like to address problems of physical, emotional, and spiritual discomfort experienced by many older adults as they near the end of life. I hope to work with a practice seeing patients in both clinic and
long term care settings in the San Juan Islands."

Karla Heath, RN, BSN
"Upon completion of my GNP my goals are to influence public policy and educational practice to promote better wages and working conditions for direct care workers across the continuum of care. I believe that only by having a highly trained and well compensated workforce will quality care for older adults become a reality."

Katharine Dexter, RN, BSN
"My primary area of interest is elder abuse and neglect. I am especially interested in State complaint investigation procedures in long term care settings and whether current methods improve conditions at these facilities. Upon graduation, I would like to be involved in developing and evaluating policies that improve the quality of life of residents in long term care settings."