NICHE: Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders

The NICHE model demonstrates improved clinical outcomes, positive fiscal results, enhanced nursing competencies, community recognition, and greater patient, family, and staff satisfaction.

This official guidebook to the NICHE model of care provides nurses with the knowledge and skills for delivering best practice in the care of older adults. Primarily hospital-based, NICHE currently has a network of over 600 national and international healthcare organizations. The NICHE model ensures that every adult age 65 and over receives care that promotes dignity, autonomy and function.

Written by world-leading experts in gerontological nursing, this distinguished publication serves as the gold standard manual for nurses and all clinical care providers looking to provide optimal, evidence-based care to their older patients. As the leading nurse-driven program designed to address the complex needs of older adults, the NICHE model emphasizes the role of the nurse as a change agent and leader for effective program development, implementation of best practices, and formulation of healthcare policy. This model engages frontline practicing nurses and staff, providing the requisite knowledge and skills to work autonomously with full responsibility and authority in complex healthcare systems.

Key Features

• Reflects the best practices of the over 600 NICHE hospitals
• Features multiple case studies and exemplars
• Uses an interprofessional approach to care
• Draws on leading gerontological nursing experts nationally and internationally
• Highly relevant to a global audience
• This publication also serves as the policy, planning and implementation companion to Evidence-Based Geriatric Nursing Protocols for Best Practice, edited by Marie Boltz, PhD, RN, GNP-BC, FGSA, FFAN et al

Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the President of the John A. Hartford Foundation in New York City, a foundation dedicated to improving the care of older adults. Established in 1929, the Foundation has a current endowment of more than half a billion dollars. She serves as the chief strategist for the Foundation, and her vision for better care of older adults is catalyzing the Age-Friendly Health Systems social movement. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and served on the independent Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes established to advise the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She previously served as Distinguished Professor and Dean of Health Sciences at Northeastern University. Prior, she served as the Erline Perkins McGriff Professor and Founding Dean of the New York University College of Nursing. She received her bachelor's degree from Skidmore College, her master's and doctoral degrees from Boston College, and her Geriatric Nurse Practitioner Post-Master's Certificate from New York University. She completed a Brookdale National Fellowship and is the first nurse to have served on the board of the American Geriatrics Society. She is also the first nurse to have served as President of the Gerontological Society of America, which awarded her the 2019 Donald P. Kent Award for exemplifying the highest standards for professional leadership in the field of aging. Dr. Fulmer is nationally and internationally recognized as a leading expert in geriatrics. She is known for conceptualization and development of the Age-Friendly Health Systems movement and the national Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) program, as well as for her research on the topic of elder abuse and neglect, which has been funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research. She is a Trustee for the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, Springer Publishing Company, and the Bassett Healthcare System and is a Member of the Reimagining Long-Term Care Task Force in New York State and a member of the National Academy of Medicine's Forum on Aging, Disability, and Independence. Dr. Fulmer also serves as Vice Chair of the Department of Veterans Affairs Special Medical Advisory Group. She was the Chair of the National Advisory Committee for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellows Program and held board positions at Skidmore College, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Geriatrics and Gerontology Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Advisory Board for Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Nursing. She is one of the top 50 Influencers in Aging by PBS's Next Avenue, the premier digital publication dedicated to covering issues for older Americans. Dr. Fulmer is the recipient of prestigious awards, including the American Society on Aging's 2017 Rosalie S. Wolf Award for her body of work on elder abuse. In 2016, she received the 2016 Award for Exceptional Service to The New York Academy of Medicine for her distinguished service on the Academy's Board of Trustees, including as vice-chair, and for her active engagement in the policy work of the Academy, especially its Age-Friendly NYC initiative. She has been honored with invitations for named lectureships from noted universities. She has held faculty appointments at Columbia University, where she was the Anna C. Maxwell Chair in Nursing, and she has also held appointments at Boston College, Yale University, and the Harvard Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School. She has served as a visiting professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and Case Western Reserve University. She is a Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of Practice and is currently an attending nurse at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Her clinical appointments have included the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the NYU Langone Medical Center. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Gerontological Society of America, and the New York Academy of Medicine, where she served as vice-chair. She has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and edited 23 books.