Specialty Association Accomplishments: Exemplars of Activities and Products

Abstract

The goal of Nurse Competence in Aging (NCA), the project described in this article, has been to help specialty nursing associations move forward with activities to educate their members in geriatric care and to help these associations develop activities and products that serve as ongoing resources to their members and help sustain the organizational commitment to geriatrics. All associations participating in NCA have disseminated information about geriatric issues to their members, and many have implemented geriatric special interest groups and awards recognizing members for their geriatric work. Most associations have produced lasting organizational and infrastructural change to infuse geriatric issues into their overall education and information provided to members. In addition, many of the associations have advanced geriatric excellence among their members by promoting formal competencies, addressing association scope and standards of practice, enhancing specialty exams with geriatric content, promoting continuing education in geriatrics, or supporting dual certification in geriatrics together with their own specialties. The full scope and overall outcomes of association activities are reported in the article Ensuring Competence of Specialty Nurses in Care of Older Adults, pages, 9-14. In this article, 6 associations are highlighted as exemplars for their successful integration of geriatric content into already existing materials, their development of excellent new resources, their creation of lasting infrastructures for geriatric activities, and their making a priority of embedding geriatric information throughout their communication with members. See also Case Study page 16.