The National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE) has named Cathy Maxwell, Ph.D., R.N., its 2017 NHCGNE Innovation Award recipient. The award recognizes and celebrates innovative programs and projects that highlight excellence in gerontological nursing. It is given to a member or team for innovation that positively impacts nursing care for older adults.
Maxwell, assistant professor of Nursing, was recognized for her work on frailty and geriatric trauma. Her research highlights the high prevalence of frailty in the geriatric trauma population and calls for screening efforts to identify frailty in clinical settings, as well as for interventions to prevent, delay and decrease the burden of frailty.
Maxwell is a member of the Vanderbilt Center for Gerontological Nursing Excellence (VUSN-CGNE), and leads team efforts designed to increase frailty awareness through a variety of approaches. The Hartford award recognizes the innovation of those efforts in creating collaboration, teamwork and cooperation internally and with external groups, such as other health care providers, universities and organizations. The VCGNE approach includes education to students, community groups and health care providers about what causes frailty as well as how to combat it. Other components of the frailty awareness efforts include interdisciplinary collaborations to incorporate frailty screening into medical facility admissions’ processes, community outreach, quality improvement studies and a variety of research projects, publications and presentations.
Maxwell was recognized during NHCGNE’s leadership conference on global issues in aging, dementia and mental health held earlier this month in San Francisco.