Older people - specific areas of care

This page signposts policy and reports on specific areas of care including pages from other RCN online resources. These are arranged in alphabetical order of area of care.

Care homes

Care home sweet home. Care home of the future (PDF 1.1MB). This report aims to understand and explain how care homes will need to develop to respond to a changing world. This can be done by "making the care home a real ‘community hub’, by bringing it into the mainstream of community life and creating a more integrated society".

Dementia

The dementia resource includes:

RCN Dementia project (a national project about care of people with dementia in general hospitals)
UK national strategies and standards
agencies and networks
resources to support people with dementia
resources to support carers.

Dignity

The dignity resource includes:

RCN publications and resources on dignified care
UK wide dignity resources
See also the online resource on Spirituality.

Emergency care

Joint medical statement on the emergency care of older people (PDF 142KB). This joint statement highlights the important part nurses can play in ensuring high quality, compassionate care for older people.
Transforming Community Services. A Strategy for the Care of Frail Older People (PDF 852KB). This strategy looks at the health and social needs of older populations and proposes an integrated approach for the care of frail older people to optimise current resources for a predicted increase in need.
Acute medical care of older people outside hospital (Power Point presentation). This presentation by Simon Conroy looks at the increasingly complex care needs of an ageing population.

Falls

FallSafe. This high quality e-learning package on preventing falls in hospital was launched on 17 July 2012. The package takes practitioners through the essential background, clinical knowledge base and practical tools that they need to underpin best practice in this area. The RCN has worked closely with the Royal College of Physicians on this as part of the FallSafe project, and has endorsed the products. Although the e-learning can only be accessed by nurses working in the NHS, a full suite of resources is now available for download free for nurses in all sectors.