National League for Nursing

About the NLN

ACES

Advancing Care Excellence for Seniors

New Days New Ways!

ACES:

Guides the teaching of nursing students to provide
competent, individualized, and humanistic care to older adults.
Addresses the complexity of decision making about care for the older adult in a variety of home, institutional and community-based settings.
Provides a foundation for faculty to advance care excellence for seniors.

Evolving knowledge of geriatrics creates exciting learning opportunities and generates excellent resources.

Students learning about geriatrics and faculty learning strategies to teach students how to care for older adults are not separate activities; pedagogy and knowledge dissemination are intimately linked. Using ACES, the teacher assists the student to develop nursing judgment, to notice what is happening by assessing the person's functional status as well as the strengths, resources, needs, cultural traditions, wishes, and expectations of the older adult and caregiver. Teacher and student use evolving, evidence based geriatric knowledge, technology and best practices to encourage a spirit of inquiry and provide competent care for the older adult.

ACES is based on the following underlying beliefs about aging and about older adults:

Individualized Aging Since the aging process is uniquely manifested by each individual, assessing function and expectations of care is essential.
Complexity The care of older adults requires specialized knowledge in the art and science of both nursing and geriatrics to manage the interplay of factors that influence quality care.
Life Transitions Older adulthood is dynamic as the person transitions from one form, state, activity or place to another.

Click here for the
Essential Nursing Actions chart

ACES has been developed through a partnership of the National League for Nursing and Community College of Philadelphia with funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation, Laerdal Medical, the Independence Foundation, and the Hearst Foundations. Click here to learn more about these organizations.

The materials on this website build upon and expand the work done by the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at the New York University and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in educating nursing students about the care of older adults. Further information is available at www.aacn.nche.edu/Education/Hartford/index.htm and/or www.hartfordign.org.