Role of the geriatric nursing program coordinator at a Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Abstract

Abstract Wadsworth Hospital is an acute care Veterans Administration (VA) facility with a capacity of about 800. In 1979, as part of the VA's national Geriatric Research Educational Clinical Care (GRECC) pilot program, Wadsworth opened a 15-bed geriatric evaluation unit (GEU). The author is the Nursing Program Coordinator for GRECC. The article reviews her role in the development and implementation of the GEU, including staffing for the delivery of care via the primary nursing model, educating nurses and house staff and other health care professionals regarding care of the aged, functioning as a resource person and role model, participating as a member of a multidisciplinary health care delivery and consultation team, and collaborating in the evaluation of geriatric care approaches and educational research projects. Factors that facilitated the author's role included supportive service chiefs (medicine, nursing, physical therapy), committed multidisciplinary health care deliveries, appropriate planning prior to implementation of the program, and an adequate pilot phase for working out logistical problems. The barriers inherent in the system that affect the author's role also are discussed.