Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing

 

Welcome to the Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence! As of May, 2016, over fifty-six schools are now members of this national organization.

Donna Fick, Director of the Hartford Center,  Nikki Hill, Associate Director, and the Hartford Center staff, are here to offer you some of the most exciting opportunities for enriching your program of study.

Dr. Kimberly Van Haitsma who heads up the Person-Centered Living Systems of Care Initiative within the Hartford Center has recently joined our team.  For more information about this initiative, please visit the Person-Centered Living Systems of Care Initiative website at: http://www.nursing.psu.edu/hartford/ppclsc.

The Hartford Center can help extend your network of colleagues and collaborators across the globe (we have research collaborations with faculty in Germany, UK, Australia). You can learn about the latest research in the care of older adults (we have international renowned faculty in EOL care, older prisoners, heart failure, dementia, delirium and person-centered care who are eager to meet you and share with you opportunities for participating as a research team member on their NIH-funded projects).

The Hartford Center has support and opportunities for accessing leadership training and experiences at national and international meetings. Our ever popular seminars and journal clubs address critical clinic problems of older adults and are presented by leading experts in the field. With generous support from Dr. Donald Ford we are beginning to develop an important core on patient/family centered care in dementia.

Finally there are two NIH and Hartford funded post-doctoral students are mentored in the Center: Lauren Massimo (apathy in FTD) and Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi (transitions to SNFs).

Please stop by and meet all our Center faculty, students and staff and take advantage of all our enrichment activities (seminars, journal clubs, travel to research meetings). We often video conference these events for those that can not attend in person. We also record and archive all our major presentations.

Below is a list of the topics/areas that our faculty are researching you might want to engage with!

• cognitive health and aging
• delirium, recognition of and use of a screening tool
• dementia, non-pharmacological interventions for behavioral symptoms of distress
• dementia, impact of environmental factors and caregiver interactions on apathy
• person-centered care
• use of technology to improve outcomes

Please visit our website (http://www.nursing.psu.edu/hartford) for more information about the Center, our faculty, doctoral and post-doctoral students. It’s a great place to be!