Leading Change in Age-Friendly Health Systems, HSC Center for Older Adults 2025-2027

Regardless of your healthcare setting (e.g., ambulatory care, hospital, skilled or nursing facility), you can gain valuable skills to improve your care delivery. You'll explore the importance of age-friendly care, gain practical strategies to enhance patient outcomes, and learn how to implement meaningful change, even amid workforce challenges. By the end of this 4-module course, you'll be equipped to drive lasting improvements in care for older adults across all settings. Those moving into healthcare leadership and/or quality improvement will find this module particularly useful.

Target Audience

This activity is intended for physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, and social workers.

Learning Objectives

When you complete this module, you will be able to:

Explain the importance of Age-Friendly care.
List the "4Ms" that are part of the Age-Friendly framework.
Explain the importance of organizational culture and leadership on driving organizational change
List Kotter’s eight stages of organizational change
Identify pitfalls to avoid at each Kotter stage
Outline how Kotter’s model supports the implementation of an Age-Friendly project
Identify quality improvement principles and tools that can help organize change efforts.
Describe two quality improvement tools that can help study a problem and identify causes.
Explain how different measurement tools can be used to communicate change results to your stakeholders.
Describe one approach to ongoing quality improvement in a healthcare system.
Identify next steps to implement change management skills in your setting.

Funding

This project is supported by grant funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U1QHP53050. The contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the Health Resources and Services Administration or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. No commercial support was received for this activity.

Course summary

Available credit:

1.50 ACPE Pharmacy
1.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
1.50 ANCC
1.50 AOA Category 2-B
1.50 ASWB Credit
1.50 HSC Participation

Course opens:

05/13/2025

Course expires:

05/12/2027

Cost:

$0.00

Rating:

Disclosures

In accordance with the appropriate accrediting bodies, all planners, teachers, and authors with control over activity content are required to disclose to the provider any relevant financial relationships (those held by the person, currently or within the last 24 months) with ineligible interests. Accredited providers are required to provide this information to learners before the start of an activity. The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth Division of Academic Innovation's office planning team nor the subject matter experts, have anything to disclose.

Primary Contributor

Kellie Flood, MD, Adjunct Professor, Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, University of Alabama at Birmingham

Secondary Contributors

Thomas Fairchild, PhD, Adjunct Faculty, Center for Older Adults, Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Janice Knebl, DO, MBA, DSWOP Endowed Chair in Clinical Geriatrics, UNT Regents Professor, HSC Health Chief, Medical Officer, Internal Medicine and Geriatric Department, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, The University of North Texas Health Science Center

Sara Murphy, PhD, PMP, LSSBB, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Reviewers

Jacob Rogers, PharmD, BCACP, Assistant Professor of Pharmacotherapy, HSC College of Pharmacy, and Clinical Pharmacist, Center for Older Adults, Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Jane Oderberg, LMSW, CDP, CADDCT, Instructor, Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Kate Taylor, DNP, FNP-C, CPPS, FNAP, Assistant Professor, Assistant Dean of Clinical Outreach Affairs, Office of the Dean, College of Nursing, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Diana Cervantes, MS, MPH, DrPH, Associate Professor, College of Public Health, The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Instructional Design

Brenda Wilson, MS, CHCP, Senior Instructional Designer, CE & Assessment Department, Division of Academic Innovation, University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth

Course Director(s)