Age-Friendly Health Systems can deliver high-quality care to older adults. Their evidence-based 4M framework (what matters, medication, mentation, mobility) reduces patient harm by: clarifying goals; managing medications; addressing cognitive issues; and optimizing mobility by assessing and addressing pain. This Learning Pathway provides comprehensive education on these topics, resulting in a CAPC Designation to demonstrate age-friendly care competency, and ensuring successful response to the new Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program’s age friendly structural measure.

What Matters

Introduction to Palliative Care for Health Professionals

An introduction to palliative care, how it is delivered, its impact on quality of life, and the growing population of patients who need it.

Clarifying Patient Goals of Care

Learn best practices for building trust, eliciting patient values, and having patient-centered conversations about goals of care.

Goals of Care Conversation: Role Play

In this video, Kacey Boyle, RN, MSPC, leads us through an example of a goals of care conversation between a clinician and a patient.

Empathetic Responses Guide
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This resource provides practical samples of empathic responses to use in conversations with patients and families, as well as template responses to challenging questions. Developed by VitalTalk.

Medication

Reducing Risks for Older Adults

This course provides context and best practices for identifying older adults at risk for poor outcomes, including falls, delirium, and caregiving challenges.

Deprescribing Escape Room: Reducing Medication-Related Harm

This interactive escape room game challenges learners to conduct a thorough assessment of a patient whose multiple medications may be causing adverse effects, and determine which one(s) are candidates for deprescribing.

How Deprescribing Can Mitigate the Problem of Overmedication

The importance of reviewing a patient's list of medications before adding to it—and how to assess if a patient is overmedicated.

Mentation

A Delirium Whodunit: Understanding the Causes of Delirium

This interactive whodunit game challenges learners to conduct a thorough clinical investigation of a patient with delirium to diagnose the cause(s).

Cognitive Assessment Tools

Recommended validated cognitive assessment tools.

PHQ-9: Validated Screening Tool for Depression

Used to screen, diagnose and measure the severity of depression.

Mobility

Course 1: Comprehensive Pain Assessment

Conducting a comprehensive pain assessment to guide safe and effective treatment.

Non-Opioid Chronic Pain Management

Clinical training on the biological basis of chronic pain, building patient trust, and non-pharmacological and non-opioid treatments for managing chronic pain in patients with serious illness.

Analgesics Fact Sheet

When to use - and when to avoid - 6 classes of analgesics including acetaminophen, NSAIDs, opioids, antiepileptics, antidepressants, and corticosteroids.

Pain Assessment and Documentation Tool (PADT)

Validated instrument to assess pain intensity and impact on function over time.

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