Director's Message: RN Residency in Geriatric and Palliative Care at Boston's Massachusetts General

Here at the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA), we discuss solutions to the nationwide nursing shortage in terms of "issue areas": skills for the future, education capacity, recruitment and retention, practice and access to care, and leadership. Of special interest to CCNA and AARP is the retention of older nurses in the workforce in ways that are rewarding and meaningful. This residency program at Massachusetts General offers new opportunities to deepen their expertise and redirect their careers. Retooling nurses in geriatric and palliative care also helps meet a fast growing societal need. A very important and timely twofer, as they say, or in other words, an innovative initiative that tackles more than one issue.

With a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Edward Coakley, MS, MEd, MA, RN, created and now directs a six-month residency program for staff nurses aged 45 and older who wish to improve their skills in order to deliver the best possible care to the health system’s geriatric patients. Not only does the RN residency program increase the quality of patient care, it does so by inviting older nurses to contribute their wisdom and experience, a strategy which has proven invaluable to health care institutions and the communities they serve.

The video features two nurses whose experience totals more than four decades and both have committed to extending their careers as a result of the residency program because it empowers them as professionals to not only provide better care, but to champion the needs of their older patients. Coakley and his colleagues agree that geriatric patients often receive unnecessary and disruptive care when what they most need is a patient and family centered plan of care that helps them understand and manage various treatment options in later life.

As strong patient and family advocates and champions, nurses are well positioned to offer that kind of care, and older nurses, with updated skills and a lifetime of experience, are proving to be some of the best providers of the palliative care this growing group of patients needs.

We are pleased to have documented this breakthrough program and showcase it as a model that retains older nurses in the workforce while expanding geriatric care capacity. We enjoyed filming the dedicated nursing professionals in this four minute video, and we hope you’ll take the time to watch it here. Also, we encourage you to view our other videos of nurses addressing access, quality and affordability of health care for all Americans.

Please share these video links with your friends, family, and colleagues.