Development of Gerontological Nursing Practice
In 1966, the American Nurses` Association (ANA) established a Division of Geriatric Nursing. Its goals would be to upgrade and advance the practice of geriatric nursing, and to develop nurses in this specialty.
Institutional care would be improved to meet new standards. Nursing home nurses, especially, welcomed this development. In 1970, medical-surgical nursing textbooks were presenting care plans for nursing older patients that took into account the specific problems of aging.
In 1976, the Division of Geriatric Nursing became the Division of Gerontological Nursing, because promoting wellness in the elderly had become a nursing goal. Standards of care are a model for the nurse to follow. They identify what must be done to plan and provide nursing care, determine if that care is effective, and change and update plans.
How these things are accomplished is decided by using the nursing process. Standards of nursing are also used as a method of comparison and evaluation by those who make judgements on quality of care.
Reference :
Farrell J : Nursing Care of the Older Person, J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1990.
