S P R I N G 2 0 1 8 N E W S L E T T E R I S S U E 1 UTAH GERIATRIC EDUCATION CONSORTIUM OVERVIEW The Utah Geriatric Education Consortium (UGEC) was established in July, 2015 in order to improve long term healthcare through the education of the workforce providing associated services. This includes the health professionals attending the University of Utah and those providing long term care throughout Utah. A secondary purpose of the program is to increase understanding amongst the aforementioned groups and the community in general. UGEC was established in collaboration with the Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) and is funded by the Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (GWEP) initiative, which focuses on improving primary care and dementia care of older adults. The University of Utah is the only recipient of a GWEP grant that is focusing on long term care. Community partners include Avalon Health Care and Mission Health Services facilities throughout Utah. Health Insight, a Quality Improvement Organization in Utah, and the Alzheimer s Association of Utah are both included in the program development and administration. The UGEC includes physician programs, nursing programs, community programs and a Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) program.the main goal of the program is to create bidirectional integration of primary care into eldercare. CONTENT 02 - Upcoming Events and Past Achievements 03 - Program Updates 04 - UGEC Faculty 05 - UGEC Champions This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U1QHP28741.
UPCOMING EVENTS Learning Community Meetings: Third Thursday of every month February 15 (8:00-9:00 AM): Care Transitions Presented By: Timothy Farrell, MD March 15 (8:00-9:00 AM): Problems and Solutions Effecting the LGBT Geriatric Community Presented By: Charlie P. Hoy-Ellis, MSW, PhD, LCSW ADRD Caregiver Conferences These FREE workshops for caregivers of persons with dementia are sponsored by the Utah Geriatric Education Center at the University of Utah, the Utah Alzheimer's Association, the Utah Department of Health, and your local Area Agency on Aging. Topics Include: Register for one or both days at: -Dementia Overview http://bit.ly/demcarecon -Caring for the Caregiver Register by April 10, 2018 -End-of-Life Conversations Lunch will be provided -Resources available in your area -Q&A with a panel of experts Register by phone: Weber/Davis Area Sonia: (801) 525-5105 April 17, 2018 10:00 am to 2:30 pm Check in at 9:30 am Bear River/Cache Area Carolyn: (435) 752-7242 April 18, 2018 10:00 am to 2:30 pm Check in at 9:30 am ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2016-2017 1. Graduated first nurse residency cohort and enrolled 20 in second cohort 2. Hosted successful retreat at Homestead Resort in June 3. Site visit during AGS in San Antonio resulted in Program Officer positively receiving program review 4. Four faculty fellows: One each from Pharmacy, Nursing, Medicine, and Social Work 5. Sponsored two caregiver support conferences 6. Provided tuition support and enrolled three medical directors in the core curriculum offered by the Society for Post-Acute and Long Term Care (AMDA), to advance their certification process. Three more are in the process of enrollment for the 2017-2018 project year 7. Learning Communities continue to grow with all partner long-term care facilities able to participate 8. HealthInSight has provided additional quality improvement training to nursing home teams 9. Support of 5 DNP students to obtain Gerontology five Interdisciplinary Program certificates with an emphasis in PALTC 10. Five abstracts accepted for presentation to AGHE in Spring 2018 and eight abstracts accepted for presentation at AGS 11. Hosted interprofessional education opportunity for Health Sciences students in fall 2017 at partner facility and another one to come in spring 2018 12. Awarded two small grants: 1) to attend a care transitions training in Atlanta, and 2) hold a small networking meeting on rural care transitions with three other GWEP s 2
PROGRAM UPDATES NURSE RESIDENCY By: Nanci McLeskey (DNP, MCG, MDiv, RN-BC, CHPN, FNGNA), Program Lead The 2017-2018 Nurse Residency Program (NRP) is going well. It is a great pleasure to work with these nurse residents and we know that Avalon and Mission are fortunate to have these wonderful nurses caring for their residents! Approximately 13 nurses are actively participating. In September 2017, our 2nd group of nurse residents began the NRP course with the first of three sections which covered the foundation of geriatric nursing and evidence-based practice for an older population. Currently the residents are completing Section 2 which opened in January 2018 and contains information on LTC, surveys, QMS and developing and completing a specific quality improvement (QI) project. Recently Shylettera Davis from HealthInsight provided in-person QI trainings for the nurses at their facilities. It s great to hear how enthusiastic the nurses are to work on their projects and improve the care in their facility! Some of the projects the nurses are proposing to work on include: POLST, medication errors, falls, etc. The anticipated outcome for these projects are to decrease readmissions to hospitals and also improve the overall quality of care of their residents. In addition to their course work, the Nurse Residents are working on completing their End of Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) certificate as well as their Alzheimer s Disease and other Related Dementia Certificate. Both of these certificates will better equip them to care for those that are seriously ill and/or dying and those that are suffering from a dementia, which we know are not unfamiliar conditions in long-term care (LTC). The final Section 3 will begin in early April and will cover leadership, communication, and preparation for taking the gerontological nursing boards. Besides the course material to prepare for the exam, each nurse resident will receive a copy of the Gerontological Nurse Certification Review Book. As a previous LTC nurse and now co-director for the NRP program, it is my great pleasure and privilege to be walking beside each of these nurses and to be working with these great companies!! 3
PROGRAM UPDATES ADRD MODULES Expert faculty and clinicians at the University of Utah have created a series of online training modules to help increase knowledge about Alzheimer s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) and improve care of residents with dementia. These trainings are designed for patients, family members, and direct care employed in post-acute or long-term care settings. The online educational program is divided into four modules that, in total, will take 2-3 hours to complete. The topics covered in each module include: o Overview of dementia o Understanding behaviors and your approach o Communication in nursing homes o Communication and Understanding Behaviors Getting started: o Please email Dr. Kara Dassel at kara.dassel@nurs.utah.edu to register for this FREE online education program. o Participants will need to complete an anonymous demographic and ADRD knowledge survey prior to being granted access to the training modules. At the completion of the modules, we ask participants to complete a post ADRD knowledge survey. COMMUNICATIONS SURVEY UGEC faculty comprising the care transitions, communication, and health literacy strand created an 11-item communication survey in order to assess confidence among providers and staff of long term care facilities in communicating health information with family caregivers. Survey domains include mutual respect, confidence in recognizing and responding to sensory deficits, confidence with health literacy (including the "teach-back" method), and confidence in communication with health care team members (including responding to changes in condition). Content validity was achieved through review of the survey questions by experts from HealthInsight. The survey is currently being administered on a rolling basis to all UGEC partner long term care facilities. UGEC will then analyze the results and work with each facility to identify additional training needs in communicating about sensory deficits, health literacy, and changes in condition. An abstract describing the communication survey was accepted as a poster presentation for the 2018 American Geriatrics Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, FL. LEARNING COMMUNITY This distance education program is provided monthly to all nursing homes operated by UGEC provider partners. Focusing on different aspects of long-term care, a guest lecturer speaks about the chosen topic by utilizing a patient case and allowing for each care home to assess the situation, consult with other attendees, and participate in a debriefing about the case at hand. Learning Community Objectives: 1. Through a case based format, attendees will gain skills in pertinent areas of nursing home patient care, including: adverse medication events, dementia care, and transitions of care. 2. Use tele-video conferencing technologies to communicate with other providers. 3. Develop interprofessional collaboration skills (i.e., communication, values/ethics, teams/teamwork, and roles/responsibilities). Links to past Learning Community Presentations (2017): https://mediaspace.utah.edu/media/t/0_e95o9vs6 https://mediaspace.utah.edu/media/t/0_ttveot05 4
UGEC CHAMPIONS We would like to thank the following people for helping improve care and achieve our objectives on site! Thank you for: updating UGEC posters, helping with training recruitment, setting up and troubleshooting video conferencing equipment, following up with evaluation surveys, and being the primary point of contact between your community and UGEC. Avalon Health Care Avalon Care Center/Bountiful: Deseree Knight Avalon Valley Rehabilitation: Sam Holt Avalon West Health & Rehabilitation: Julie Westlind Canyon Rim Care Center: Amanda Nance Heritage Hills Rehabilitation/ Nephi: Arron Strong Heritage Care Center/ American Fork: Ryan Walker North Canyon Care Center/ Bountiful: Richard Fonoti Pioneer Care Center/ Brigham City: Richard Anderson Richfield Rehabilitation & Care Center/ Richfield: Marena Tanner Willow Wood Care Center: Mary Mathis Woodland Park Care Center: Daryl Peterson Central Utah Veterans Home: Stephanie Christensen Ogden Veterans Home: Amber Wells Salt Lake City Veterans Home: Lacey Keller Southern Utah Veterans Home: Stephanie Allen Mission Health Systems Mission at Alpine Valley/ Pleasant Grove: Jerome Acoba Mission at Bear River/ Tremonton: Deborah Larsen Mission at Community Living/ Centerfield: Sherrie Coates Willow Glen Health & Rehabilitation/ Brigham City: Debbie East Mission at Hillside: Emily Dvorak 5
UGEC FACULTY Executive Director: Linda Edelman, PhD, RN linda.edelman@nurs.utah.edu 801-585-9187 Curriculum Committee Leader/End-of-Life Care and Advance Care Planning: Shaida Talebreza-Brandon, MD 801-587-9103 Evaluation Director: Jorie Butler, PhD, RN jorie.butler@psych.utah.edu 801-582-1565-Ext-1964 Project Consultant: Ginette Pepper, PhD, RN, FAAN ginny.pepper@nurs.utah.edu 801-585-7872 Curriculum Committees Support: Jacqueline Eaton jacqueline.eaton@nurs.utah.edu 801-587-9638 Troy Christian Andersen, PhD, MSW, MS, LCSW troy.andersen@hsc.utah.edu 801-587-5354 Faculty Fellow: Charles Pitre Hoy-Ellis, PhD, MSW Charles.HoyEllis@socwk.utah.edu 801-585-0835 Valerie Flattes, PhD valerie.flattes@nurs.utah.edu 801-585-0719 Faculty Fellow: Kristin Hueftle, MD D. James Ballard, PT, DPT jim.ballard@hsc.utah.edu 801-585-7341 Faculty Fellow: Michelle L. Litchman, PhD, APRN, FNPBC Program Manager: Nancy Nelson, CCRC, MBA nancy.nelson@nurs.utah.edu 801.587.9127 Program Manager: Sarah Scott, MS/Gerontology, MBA Sarah.Scott@nurs.utah.edu 801.587-8757 Co-Director/Physician s Programs: Mark Supiano, MD mark.supiano@utah.edu 801-581-2628 Co-Director/Nursing Programs: Nanci McLeskey, DNP, MCG, MDiv, RN-BC, CHPN, FNGNA Nanci.McLeskey@nurs.utah.edu Co-Director/Nursing Programs: Larry Garret, PhD, MPH, BSN, HealthInsight lgarrett@healthinsight.org 801-892-6665 Program Manager: Shylettera Davis, RN HealthInsight SDavis@healthinsight.org 801-892-6617 Co-Director/Interdisciplinary and Community Programs; Curriculum Strand Leader/Dementia Care: Kara Dassel, PhD kara.dassel@nurs.utah.edu 480-544-118 Physicians Programs/Learning Community Leader: Cherie Brunker, MD 801-408-5356 Curriculum Committee Leader/Care Transitions, Communications, and Health Literacy: Timothy Farrell, MD, AGSF 801-581-2628 Curriculum Committee Leader/Caregiver Support: Rand Rupper, MD, MPH 801-584-2522 Curriculum Committees Support: Sue Chase-Cantarini, DNP susan.chase@nurs.utah.edu 801-585-9642 Director, Community Engagement: Joan Gallegos, MSW, RN, Health Insight Data Analyst: Jacqueline Telonidis, MS Norman Foster, MD, Director of Center for Alzheimer s Care, Imaging, and Research 801-587-7236 Graduate Assistant/ Nurse Residency: Tatiana Podchinenova Tina McNulty, PhD, OTE/L tina.mcnulty@hsc.utah.edu 801-585-9292 Graduate Assistant/ADRD and Community Programs: Landon Robert Moyers, RN, BSN, PMHNP-DNP Student Gail Towsley, PhD gail.towsley@nurs.utah.edu 801-585-9085 Graduate Research Assistant: Blair Crickmore, MPH Student Rebecca Wilson, PhD Rebecca.D.Wilson@utah.edu 801-585-3099 Marilyn Luptak, PhD, MSW Marilyn.Luptak@socwk.utah.edu 801-581-3645 Katherine Supiano, PhD katherine.supiano@hsc.utah.edu 801-581-2322 6