Improving the quality of geriatric nursing care: Enduring outcomes from the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium

The nation's aging demographics, few nursing faculty with gero-expertise, and insufficient geriatric content in nursing programs has created a national imperative to increase the supply of nurses qualified to provide care for older adults. GNEC, the Geriatric Nursing Education Consortium, a collaborative program of the John A. Hartford Foundation, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and the NYU Nursing Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing was initiated to provide faculty with the necessary skills, knowledge, and competency to implement sustainable curricular innovations in care of older adults. This article describes the background, processes, and development of GNEC evidence-based curricular materials, and the dissemination of these materials through six, two and a half day national Faculty Development Institutes (FDIs). Eight hundred eight faculty, representing 418 schools of nursing, attended an FDI. A total of 479 individuals responded to an evaluation conducted by Baruch College that showed faculty feasibility to incorporate GNEC content into courses, confidence in teaching and incorporating content, and overall high rating of the GNEC materials. The impact of GNEC is discussed along with effects on faculty participants over two years. Administrative and faculty level recommendations to sustain and expand GNEC are highlighted.Peer reviewe