In April 2009, more than 180 representatives from nursing schools, including four Hartford Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, hospitals and other healthcare facilities in 31 states and Australia convened in Durham, N.C., at the Connecting the Dots: Geriatric Nursing, Education and Simulation conference. This international conference presented nurse researchers, educators and clinicians with the opportunity to network and forge relationships that will lead to further investigative collaborations in geriatric nursing education and research.
A grant from the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality supported the dissemination of select portions of this conference, such as videotaping of the keynote speeches and interactive clinical simulation sessions and publishing a special issue of the Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing.
During the two-day event, leaders from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing (SON) and the Flinders University School of Nursing and Midwifery in Adelaide, South Australia signed a Memorandum of Understanding. This partnership will assist faculty from both schools in the future as they move to work together on several topics, including aged care, safety and quality, mental health, forensic nursing and abuse and women.
Several other connections were launched during the conference along with the one between the SON and Flinders. Flinders also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing to collaborate in the future on dehydration research. In addition, initial groundwork was laid for a joint effort among Flinders, King’s College Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, a sister school to the SON, and the SON to establish a research agenda on incontinence in adults, especially the elderly.
Below is a video that discusses the burgeoning relationship between Flinders and the SON on future geriatric research and collaborations.
