SPECIALTY NURSING ASSOCIATIONS ENDORSE GLOBAL
VISION STATEMENT ON CARE OF OLDER ADULTS
New York, NY: Twenty-eight national nursing organizations, including twenty-one specialty
associations and seven members of the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations (CGNO),
have endorsed the Specialty Nursing Association Global Vision Statement on Care of Older
Adults. The statement and a list of its endorsers follow this release.
The statement emphasizes that, with the rapid increase in the population of U.S. older adults, the
nurse workforce must become equipped to meet their changing and specific health care needs.
Older adults constitute the largest group of health care users across all settings, and virtually all
nurses care for older adults in their subspecialties. Yet, the majority of nurses received no or
little information about best practices in the care of older adults from their undergraduate or
graduate specialty-degree programs. Nurses must be competent to deliver care to older adults,
being sensitive to the physiological, functional, and psychological needs that set them apart from
younger adults.
The vision statement was developed through REASN (Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in
Specialty Nursing), a project of The Harford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York
University College of Nursing. REASN seeks a comprehensive response among nursing
specialties to support evidence-based best practices in care of older adults in hospitals, home
care, and institutional long-term care settings. The Specialty Nursing Association Global Vision
Statement on Care of Older Adults can be viewed at:
http://consultgerirn.org/specialty_practice/Global_Vision_Statement/