Geriatric Nursing: Function, Frailty and Person-Centered Care

Course Purpose

Caring for older adults in nursing practice demands an understanding that chronological age is not the primary determinant of health or care needs. Instead, effective geriatric nursing begins with assessing what a person can actually do and how their capabilities have changed. This course provides nurses with key areas essential for optimizing the well-being of older adults.

Continuing Education Credit Designation

This educational activity is credited for 3 contact hours at completion of the activity.

Overview

This course provides nurses with foundational knowledge and practical skills for providing person-centered geriatric nursing care. It is designed for nurses working with older adults in diverse settings, from primary care to acute and long-term care. Nurses completing this course will be able to assess function and frailty, identify fall risks, understand cognitive changes, manage medication safety, recognize and prevent delirium, prevent pressure injuries, and support advance care planning.

Objectives

Upon completion of this independent study, the learner will be able to:

1. Explain why functional and frailty assessment, rather than age or diagnosis alone, should guide geriatric nursing care planning.
2. Use validated fall-risk screening and functional tools, including the Timed Up and Go, 30-second chair stand, 4-Stage Balance Test and orthostatic blood pressure measurement, within a screen-assess-intervene approach.
3. Describe the scale and trend of older adult falls and deaths, and identify modifiable risk factors nurses can address.
4. Differentiate delirium from dementia and depression, and describe delirium risk factors, presentation and non-pharmacologic prevention strategies.
5. Support timely, structured assessment of cognitive impairment in older adults, including brief tools and appropriate referral.
6. Apply medication safety principles for older adults, including polypharmacy recognition, the purpose of the Beers Criteria, and person-centered deprescribing conversations.
7. Describe pressure injury risk and the bundle of skin assessment, standardized risk assessment and care planning used to prevent it.
8. Support patients and families through advance care planning conversations and documents, including living wills, health care proxies and portable medical orders, within nursing scope.

Who this course is for:

Healthcare professionals who want continuing education on Geriatric Nursing: Function, Frailty and Person-Centered Care.

Course outline

12 sections · finish in any order across devices

1. 1

   Course overview and learning objectives

2. 2

   Introduction

3. 3

   Function and frailty: why the whole-person assessment comes first

4. 4

   Falls: scale, screening and the STEADI approach

5. 5

   Cognitive change, dementia and diagnostic pathways

6. 6

   Medication safety and polypharmacy in the older adult

7. 7

   Delirium: recognition, risk and prevention

8. 8

   Mobility, immobility and pressure injury prevention

9. 9

   Advance care planning and person-centred goals

10. 10

    Bringing it together: person-centred geriatric care planning

11. 11

    Nursing Considerations

12. 12

    Conclusion

This Course Satisfies

Requirement summaries come from our state requirement records. All Users of Cheap CE For Nurses’s website and content are responsible for knowing their state’s license and renewal requirements.

Questions about this course

How many contact hours is Geriatric Nursing: Function, Frailty and Person-Centered Care?

3 contact hours, credited at completion.

How much does it cost?

$15.00 on its own, or included with All-Access ($29.99 a year, renewing yearly until you cancel).

Can I listen instead of reading?

Yes — every section can be read or heard, on your phone or computer.

When do I get my certificate?

As soon as you finish the course requirements and the evaluation. It stays in your account.

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