Geriatric patients being cared for at the Roseville Medical Center are in trusted hands according to Narlyn Llamas MBA, MSN, RN, GERO-BC, Nursing Professional Development Specialist and NICHE Coordinator. “We made a concerted effort to launch and support NICHE, or Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystems Elders in 2020,” said Llamas.
“We encouraged staff to become Geriatric Resource Nurses (GRNs), resulting in 120 nurses graduating from the program in just a few years.”
“They are now champions on all our units,” explained Llamas. “Our GRNs take a leadership role to educate co-workers about the unique challenges and risks this patient population faces, identify gaps in units, and promote change in practice to improve patient care and safety.”
Through their specialty training, GRNs provide more care to the over 65-year-old inpatient population and are fully knowledgeable about a wide range of geriatric syndromes such as depression, delirium, malnutrition, frailty, falls, and pressure ulcers.
Becoming a GRN is also a steppingstone toward obtaining Gerontological Nursing Certification (GERO-BC). With the support of the Regional Patient Care Services and Nurse Scholars Academy, the Professional Development Council of Roseville’s Voice of Nursing led by Summer Malepeai, RN, GRN and Llamas, a GERO-BC review course for nurses was organized to help prep for the exam. Fifteen NCAL hospitals participated with a total of 171 nurses attending the course, of which 45 were from Roseville. Since the start of NICHE, there are now eight GERO-BCs in Roseville, and more are becoming certified.
“Nurse engagement on this journey has been incredible — and is propelling us to new heights,” said Gertrude M. Tiangco-Alba, MSA, RN, Roseville’s Associate Chief Nurse Executive.
At the end of 2023, the Roseville hospital was recognized as an Age-Friendly Health System Participant by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The GRNs were inspired to pursue this recognition for Roseville after attending the NICHE conference in April 2023. The recognition validated the 4Ms framework that is integrated in the care of the older adults.
In 2024, the team of GRNs is working towards the second and highest level of the Age-Friendly Health System recognition which is called Committed to Care Excellence.