The program Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) offers consultation and training to healthcare organizations and individual medical workers. It is focused on the specific needs of older patients who often require additional attention and support due to their changing health (NICHE, n.d.). The program is currently active in five countries, and it participates in the improvement of more than 700 organizations. The website for NICHE is an access point for the program’s main features, including its leadership educational course for “nurse managers and clinical leaders” (NICHE, n.d., para. 2). This initiative promotes the implementation of evidence-based clinical interventions in hospitals and teaches nurses how to care for older adult patients in long-term care environments (Greenberg, Gilmartin, D’Amico, & Sullivan-Marx, 2018). Moreover, NICHE hosts webinars about interdisciplinary strategies of care as well as annual conferences that tackle questions about the present and future of geriatric nursing.
Apart from multiple programs and group events, the website also provides all interested persons with free resources for care improvement. The page “Need To Knows” is filled with helpful brochures, each of them discussing a particular issue that nurses working with older adults should consider. For example, one of the materials is dedicated to hip fractures. The pamphlet talks about the different types of fractures, the location of the injury, the importance of timely care for older adults, and the possible outcomes of this trauma (NICHE, 2017). In the second part, NICHE provides some information about ways to repair fractures. This and similar resources can assist healthcare providers in talking to their patients and discussing practices for better care. Many of the older adults’ concerns are described – sleep disturbances, nutrition problems, skincare, palliative care, pain management, mental health, and others. Overall, NICHE is a program that enhances the quality of geriatric care through continuous nursing education.
References
Greenberg, S. A., Gilmartin, M., D’Amico, C., & Sullivan-Marx, E. (2018). NICHE (Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders) program: Long Term care. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 19(3), B12-B13.
NICHE. (2017). Hip fracture & repair. Web.
NICHE. (n.d.). Homepage. Web.