Hearst Foundations Award NLN Major Grant to Expand Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors (ACES)

Workshops, Webinars, Website, and National Hearst Recognition Awards Will Foster Faculty Development to Integrate Geriatrics into Nursing Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York, NY — July 21, 2011 — Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors (ACES), a groundbreaking faculty development initiative of the National League for Nursing, has received a major boost. The NLN announced today the award of a $400,000 grant — with the opportunity for renewal up to $1.2 million — from the Hearst Foundations. This significant new funding will facilitate the national expansion of ACES, the NLNs web-based model for teaching care of older adults to nursing students in programs across the academic spectrum. The NLN is continuing to work with Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), an original collaborator in the programs development.

ACES, which includes simulation models, unfolding case studies, curricular resources, and pedagogical tools for both classroom and clinical settings, was piloted in nursing programs across the United States, with the support of the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Independence Foundation of Philadelphia, and Laerdal Medical. Now, the NLN and CCP will build on the work already completed and design, implement, and evaluate conferences and webinars that will provide faculty development on how to teach geriatrics using ACES Essential Nursing Actions as a guide.

"With this investment from the Hearst Foundations, the important progress made through the ACES Essential Nursing Actions will be amplified on a national scale. Thousands more nurse educators from across the country will have the tools to integrate geriatrics into their nursing school curriculums," noted NLN president Dr. Cathleen Shultz. Added CEO Dr. Beverly Malone, "The need is extraordinary. A majority of nursing programs have faculty with no educational preparation or experience in the emerging body of knowledge related to care of older adults. It is in the nations best interest to ensure that nurses are well-educated in the care of older adults."

Over the next three years, Integrating Geriatrics into Nursing Education, as the Hearst-funded grant is known, plans a series of day-long workshops in at least 20 states to introduce approximately 2,200 nurse educators from an estimated 300 undergraduate and PN programs to ACES. To reinforce the curricular strategies, tools, and resources presented, these statewide workshops will be followed by two webinars and culminate with another workshop, held just prior to the NLNs annual Education Summit each September.

The grant also establishes the Hearst Foundations Excellence in Geriatric Education Awards, to bestow national recognition on three nursing programs each year that demonstrate the use of resources from the NLNs workshops, website, and webinars to provide students with exceptional geriatric education. The awardees, to be announced at the NLN Education Summit, beginning in 2012, will be selected through a competitive process judged by a national review committee of geriatric nursing education experts.

Paul "Dino" Dinovitz, executive director of the Hearst Foundations, commented: "We are delighted to be partnering with the NLN. The leadership team has been remarkably forward-thinking in training nursing faculty, and in turn, the nurses of today and tomorrow, to address the needs of the growing aging population in America."

For more information about the grant, please contact NLN chief program officer Elaine Tagliareni at 212-812-0333 or etagliareni@nln.org.

Editors and reporters: For interview opportunities, please contact NLN chief communications officer Karen R. Klestzick at 212-812-0376 or kklestzick@nln.org.

Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers faculty development, networking opportunities, testing services, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 35,000 individual and more than 1,200 institutional members who represent nursing education programs across the spectrum of higher education.