Reflection on the Development and Intention of
Try This:® Series
Sherry A. Greenberg, PhD, RN, GNP-BC, FGSA, FNAP, AGSF, FAANP, FAAN
Evelyn Lauder Chair in Adult
Gerontology and Professor
Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing, Hunter College, The City University of New York
HIGN at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing launched Try This:® Best Practices in Care to Older Adults in 1998 to provide nurses and all providers with easy-to-access, easy-to-use, evidence-based tools in care of older adults.
Since its inception, Try This® has grown to 58 issues focusing on evidence-based tools and best practice approaches to care. Each issue addresses a topic specific and important to the older adult population and includes an assessment tool or best practice approach that may be conducted in a short amount of time. There are 33 issues in the General Assessment Series, 5 in the Specialty Practice Series, 5 in the Quality Improvement Series, and 15 in the Dementia Series. The General Assessment Series contains issues commonly used in assessment of older adults, such as Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (ADL); Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL); Mental Status Assessment of Older Adults: The Mini-Cog; Geriatric Depression Scale; The Modified Caregiver Strain Index; Transient and Persistent Urinary Incontinence Assessment in Older Adults; Age-Friendly Health Systems: The 4Ms. The Specialty Practice Series was developed in 2009 with the Resourcefully Enhancing Aging in Specialty Nursing (REASN) initiative. This involved 13 specialty nursing associations collaborating to improve specialty nurses’ knowledge and skills in care of older adults with topics such as Cardiac and Vascular Risk Assessment of the Older Cardiovascular Patient. The Quality Improvement Series contains issues, such as Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) in Healthcare for Older Adults, Fall Prevention, and Pressure Injury Prevention. The Dementia Series contains issues related to care of older adults living with dementia, such as Working with Families of Hospitalized Older Adults with Dementia; Eating and Feeding Issues in Older Adults with Dementia-Assessment and Intervention; Assessing and Managing Delirium in Persons with Dementia; and Therapeutic Activity Kits.
Each Try This® issue is available online or as a 2-page, downloadable PDF containing the following information: WHY the tool or best practice approach is recommended; BEST TOOL OR BEST PRACTICE APPROACH description for use and interpretation; TARGET POPULATION the tool or best practice approach should be used with; VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY information about the tool or best practice approach; STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS of the tool or best practice approach providers should consider; FOLLOW-UP recommended when using the tool or best practice approach; and MORE ON THE TOPIC providing key references and primary sources for the tool or best practice approach. Permission from the copyright holder of the tool or best practice approach is obtained by HIGN for inclusion in Try This®. The issues include screening tools and should not be used to make diagnoses.
Try This® remains the most widely used and freely-available resource used on the HIGN website with 246,534 page views over the past 2 years alone. Editors over the years included Meredith Wallace Kazer, Sheila Molony, Marie Boltz, Sherry Greenberg, and Elizabeth Seidel. If you would like to update an issue and/or write a new Try This® issue, please reach out to the current editor, at liz.seidel@nyu.edu for more information.
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