SON Home | UW Home | MyUW | UW Bothell | UW Tacoma | HealthLinks | Contact the School | Search SON | Internal Headlines | Briefly | From the Deans Desk New ERA Care Executive to Enhance Collaborations Long-standing partners ERA Care Communities and the University of Washington School of Nursing have a new ally in putting education and research into practice at retirement communities. In September, Karen Feldt joined ERA Care Communities as chief of community health. Feldt oversees the Wellness Clinics, Assisted Living, Skilled Nursing and Recreation programs at ERA Care facilities. She will work closely and collaboratively with the School of Nursing to enhance the institutions' partnership on various levels, including student experiences, research projects and faculty guidance of health care programs. Prior to joining ERA Care, Feldt was an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and, as a geriatric nurse practitioner, she conducted research on pain and dementia. "We are facing a freight train in terms of the growing elderly population in the future," Feldt says. "I know that a lot of new undergraduates and people going into nursing think they want to work with [pediatrics] or work in a really high-tech environment like the intensive care unit. My vision is allowing opportunities to be involved in a high-touch kind of environment, a place where you really learn about caring and nursing in a way that impacts the lives of older people. Regardless of what environment young nurses choose, in the future they likely will deal with older people because they will be the majority of our health care consumers." Since 1990, the School of Nursing and ERA Care Communities have brought university-based gerontological practice, education and research into the day-to-day operations of a retirement community. School of Nursing faculty serve on a number of boards and committees, including a steering committee-chaired by Carol Leppa, associate professor in the UW-Bothell nursing program-charged with contributing to each facility's community health services. ERA Care hosts clinical experiences and research opportunities for UW undergraduate and graduate students in nursing and other disciplines. Return to Headlines Headlines | Briefly | From the Deans Desk   Copyright © 2008 University of Washington 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, Washington 98195