Require Geriatric Training, Nursing Educator Urges U.S. Senate

MARCH 8, 2002 | Aging Baby Boomers and their parents need health care providers with interdisciplinary training in geriatrics, an Arkansas nursing educator told a Senate committee in Washington recently.

The associate director of the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Feb. 27. Claudia J. Beverly, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, recommended that interdisciplinary training in geriatrics, or health care for older persons, be mandatory in curricula for health care providers, including nurses.

“This country is challenged to prepare geriatric practitioners in all disciplines,” she said. “This is particularly true in nursing at all levels as we face the burgeoning number of older adults over the next 20 years … Nursing care is the backbone of care provided for older adults,” she said, but long-term care often doesn’t provide experts in geriatric care.

Claudia Beverly, R.N., Ph.D., testified before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Feb. 27.

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“Geriatrics is a discipline that best embraces interdisciplinary practice. However, principles of interdisciplinary practice are taught usually as an elective.” She encouraged the committee to make interdisciplinary education a requirement in the curriculum of health care providers.

Dr. Beverly predicted that members the Baby Boom generation won’t tolerate the conditions now found in long-term care. Baby Boomers “are already experiencing the crisis in this setting through their parents.” She encouraged the committee to examine how emerging successful models of care delivery in long-term care can be replicated throughout the country.

Dr. Beverly also is director of the John A. Hartford Foundation’s Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence and an associate professor in the UAMS College of Nursing.

Links on This Page

Center on Aging: http://centeronaging.uams.edu/
Committee on Aging: http://aging.senate.gov/
Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence: http://hartfordcenter.uams.edu/
College of Nursing: http://nursing.uams.edu/

© 2002 University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). A single copy of these materials may be reprinted for noncommercial personal use only. “UAMS,” “UAMS Medical Center,” “UAMS Online,” “UAMS Today,” “uams.edu,” and “Here’s to Your Health” are marks of UAMS.

08/08/03