Models Promoting Research and Partnerships for Equity and Access in Care of Older Adults

Purpose/Aims: Budgetary constraints along with the educational demand for specialties in PhD programs have led to innovative approaches with the intent of increasing the availability of doctoral courses. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the lack of access to gerontological scholarship in higher education and explicate how consortium models facilitate growing the science and scholarship of nursing so nursing scholars can remain active participants in the national debate on elder health care.

Rationale/Background: The evolution of consortia in higher education will be presented. Examples of collaboration between academic institutions and different disciplines as well as consortia between institutions and service providers will be examined with a focus on deliverables and challenges. However, a special emphasis will be on the goals of different nursing consortia throughout the country.

Description: The need for nursing scholarship in gerontological care will be discussed and how partnerships through the consortia model can assist in meeting this need. A discussion on the limited access to gerontological higher education courses from known gerontological centers of excellence will be presented as well as how such centers are critical in increasing nursing’s contribution and voice in directing policy and practice based on research in elder care.

Conclusions: Challenges of delivering gerontological courses from centers of excellence will be discussed and how consortia can meet this challenge will be reviewed. Identified deliverables from consortia and an evaluation of the processes of successful consortia will also be presented.