Nurses Can Now Earn Continuing Education Units (Ceus) for Completing the Training Module

For Immediate Release

Contact: Anna Rahman, 513-561-0996

WEIGHT LOSS PREVENTION IN NURSING HOMES:

FREE CEUs AVAILABLE FROM UCLA BORUN CENTER WEBSITE

Nurses can now earn continuing education units (CEUs) for completing the training module “Weight Loss Prevention in Nursing Homes” available online at the UCLA Borun Center’s website, http://borun.medsch.ucla.edu.

The course is accredited by the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine ( and valid in all 50 states. There is no charge for the course’s two CEUs.

The training module presents instructions and all the forms needed to implement a weight loss prevention intervention that has been shown to increase nursing home residents’ food and fluid consumption. With the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) now reporting a weight loss quality measure on its consumer website, nursing homes are under public pressure to prevent weight loss among residents.

Designed to meet federal practice guidelines for nutritional care in nursing homes, the Borun Center’s intervention is built around three steps:

Assess resident risk for weight loss
Individualize feeding assistance
Monitor quality of feeding assistance

The online module (http://borun.medsch.ucla.edu) offers suggestions for tailoring the intervention to suit the needs of individual residents. Additional uses for the information collected are identified so that nursing homes can maximize the intervention's utility. Recognizing that most nursing homes are understaffed at mealtimes, the module also identifies trade-offs that facilities can choose between in order to provide the best care possible given their resources.

The Borun Center for Gerontological Research is a joint venture between the UCLA School of Medicine and the Jewish Homes for the Aging of Greater Los Angeles. Borun Center staff members are available via email or the telephone to help nursing home staff implement the weight loss prevention intervention.

The Borun Center’s website—http://borun.medsch.ucla.edu –features five additional training modules designed to improve nursing home care and practice in these areas:

incontinence management
pain screening
pressure ulcer prevention
mobility decline prevention
quality-of-life assessment

All the modules are based on a series of Borun Center research projects that have won wide acclaim for producing cost-efficient and effective methods for improving long term care. All online materials are available free of charge.

The website’s development is supported by a grant from the Archstone Foundation, a private, non-profit grant-making organization in Long Beach, California, that funds programs which aim to prepare society for the growing needs of an aging society.

The Borun Center for Gerontological Research, established in 1989 and housed at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda, California, is an interdisciplinary center for applied research that focuses on creating, testing, and promoting the adoption of behavioral interventions to improve daily care and quality of life in nursing homes.

Please visit the website at http://borun.medsch.ucla.edu. For more information, contact project director Anna Rahman at (513) 561-0996. email: .