Advancing the Future of Nursing: A Report by the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing

In the United States, the number of older adults will double during the next 25 years (United States Census Bureau, 2008). This dramatic demographic shift is changing the landscape of health care practice as more people live longer with multiple chronic conditions. To better prepare nurses to care for this future population, the John A. Hartford Foundation partnered with the American Academy of Nursing in 2000 to launch the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) program. Since that time, 251 scholarships and fellowships have been awarded to nurses to advance geriatric nursing education, research, and practice. In 2009, the BAGNC nurse scholars and fellows formed an alumni organization to expand and continue their leadership development through peer networking and mentored policy initiatives. The BAGNC Alumni organization represents an elite set of new leaders in gerontological nursing to advance geriatric nursing education, research, and practice (Fagin, 2012). To this end, at the 2011 Council for Advancement of Nursing Science\u27s Special Topics Meeting, the BAGNC Alumni presented their ongoing and completed projects that relate to the Institute of Medicine (2011) (IOM) report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Summaries of the individual presentations from this panel addressed the four key IOM messages and are presented in this article to highlight the action of these scholars and fellows