There s no place like home for medical professionals at fourth annual research conference at nursing home

LONGMEADOW " Jewish Geriatric Services (JGS) invites all nurses, healthcare professionals and nursing paraprofessionals to attend the Fourth Annual Research Conference at the Julian J. Leavitt Family Jewish Nursing Home on June 11. There s No Place Like Home is the theme of this educational event, which will feature two prominent nursing professionals and offer contact hours to nurses.

Sheila L. Molony, Ph.D, APRN, GNP-BC will open the program. Molony, a nationally known expert of at homeness, is on leave from her faculty position at Yale University to complete a Claire M. Fagin Postdoctoral Fellowship from the John A. Hartford Foundation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing Hartford Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence. Molony is co-author of Gerontological Nursing: A Primary Care Clinical Guide.

She will cite her own research on enabling at-homeness in residential long-term care setting.

Meredith Wallace, Ph.D, APRN, is an associate professor, Yale University School of Nursing, will offer the Endnote Address. Wallace earned her Ph.D. at New York University and is a nationally known expert in geriatric nursing. She is also the editor of Gerontological Nurse Certification Review Manual. In 2001, she won the Springer Publishing Company Award for Applied Nursing Research.

The JGS nursing staff are not merely the audience at this event. Staff will offer over a dozen poster presentations, on topics such as use of data dashboards, anticoagulation, mentoring, electronic medical records, how music affects us, etc.

The event will offer two contact hours from the Association of Rehabilitation Nursing. Reservations are required and there s no fee for this conference. Those who wish to attend should contact Barbara Macdonald, director of Professional Practices and Nursing Outcomes, at 567-6211 or by e-mailing her at bmacdonald@jewishgeriatric.org.

JGS has been accepted by American Nurses Credentialing Center on the Journey to Nursing Excellence Program. Through the Annual Research Day Program, JGS demonstrates its commitment to identifying innovations in professional nursing practice. Research Day is a result of the partnership between JGS and the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst School of Nursing. The partnership, which was initiated in 2004, was designed with the dual purpose of providing advanced education to JGS clinical staff, while in turn offering a place for UMass nursing students to do their junior year clinical rotations.

Healthcare is constantly evolving and having the tools to keep abreast of the changes is vital to providing quality care to the people we serve, as well as creating a culture where nursing inquiry and excellence is the norm, Macdonald said. Through our shared governance council, nurses are encouraged to bring forth their questions for further exploration and research. Research Day gives those who have conducted research and quality projects a chance to share their work with colleagues at JGS as well as those in the greater Springfield area. It also encourages those attending to think about an area they might want to learn more about. This is the first step to determining their research project for next year.

JGS is a leading healthcare system serving elders and their families. Programs of JGS include the Julian J. Leavitt Family Jewish Nursing Home, Wernick Adult Day Health Care Center, Spectrum Home Health and Hospice Care, Ruth s House " An Assisted Living Residence, JGS Family Medical Care and Genesis House.

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