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TRY THIS:® and How To Try This Series
Assessment Tools on the Care of Older Adults

Try This:® Series

The goal of the Try This:® Best Practices in Nursing Care to Older Adults series of assessment tools is to provide knowledge of best practices in the care of older adults that is:

  • easily accessible
  • easily understood
  • easily implemented, and
  • to encourage the use of these best practices by all direct care nurses

The How To Try This series, a John A. Hartford Foundation-funded project provided to the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University's College of Nursing in collaboration with the American Journal of Nursing, translates the evidence-based geriatric assessment tools in the Try This assessment series into cost-free, web-based resources including demonstration videos, and a corresponding print series featured in the AJN, developed to build geriatric assessment skills - the foundation for appropriate care of older adults.

Note: To properly view the Try This issues, please download the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Try This is also viewable on your Palm! To properly view the Try This issues on your Palm OS please download the latest Acrobat Reader for the Palm from the Adobe website.

Issue 1
SPICES: An Overall Assessment Tool of Older Adults - (Updated)

Issue 2
Katz Index of Independence in Activities of Daily Living (ADL) - (Updated)

Issue 3
Mental Status Assessment of Older Adults: The Mini-Cog - (New)

Issue 4
The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS)- (Updated)
Available in Spanish- (New)

Issue 5
Predicting Pressure Ulcer Risk - (Updated)

Issue 6.1
The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) - (Updated)

Issue 6.2
The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) - (New)

Issue 7
Assessing Pain In Older Adults (Updated)

Issue 8
Fall Risk Assessment - (Updated)

Issue 9
Assessing Nutrition in Older Adults- (Updated)

Issue 10
Sexuality Assessment for Older Adults - (Updated)

Issue 11.1
Urinary Incontinence Assessment in Older Adults: Part I - Transient Urinary Incontinence - (Updated)

Issue 11.2
Urinary Incontinence Assessment in Older Adults: Part II - Persistent Urinary Incontinence - (New)

Issue 12
Hearing Screening in Older Adults-A Brief Hearing Loss Screener - (New)

Issue 13
Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) - (Updated)

Issue 14
Caregiver Strain Index (CSI) - (Updated)

Issue 15
Elder Mistreatment Assessment - (Updated) Available in Spanish - (New)

Issue 16
Beers’ Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in the Elderly

Issue 17
Alcohol Use Screening and Assessment - (Updated)

Issue 18
The Kayser-Jones Brief Oral Health Status Examination (BOHSE) - (New)

Issue 19
Horowitz's Impact of Event Scale: An Assessment of Post Traumatic Stress in Older Adults- (Updated)

Issue 20
Preventing Aspiration in Older Adults with Dysphagia - (Updated)

Available in Spanish - (New)

Issue 21
Immunizations for the Older Adult - (Updated)

Issue 22
Assessing Family Preferences for Participation in Care in Hospitalized Older Adults - (New)

Issue 23
The Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) Scale - (New)

Issue 24
The Hospital Admission Risk Profile (HARP) - (New)

Issue 25
Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) - (New)

Issues on Dementia

Issue D1
Avoiding Restraints In Patients with Dementia - (Updated)

Issue D2
Assessing Pain in Persons with Dementia - (Updated)

Issue D3
Brief Evaluation of Executive Dysfunction-An Essential Refinement in the Assessment of Cognitive Impairment - (Updated)

Issue D4
Therapeutic Activity Kits (Updated)

Issue D5
Recognition of Dementia in Hospitalized Older Adults - (Updated)

Issue D6
Wandering in the Hospitalized Older Adult (Updated)

Issue D7
Communication Difficulties: Assessment and Interventions - (New)

Issue D8
D8: Assessing and Managing Delirium in Persons with Dementia - (Updated)

Issue D9
Decision Making in Older Adults with Dementia - (Updated)

Issue D10
Working with Families of Hospitalized Older Adults with Dementia - (New)

Issue D11.1
Eating and Feeding Issues in Older Adults with Dementia: Part I: Assessment - (New)

Issue D11.2
Eating and Feeding Issues in Older Adults with Dementia: Part II: Interventions - (New)

The How to Try This series, a John A. Hartford Foundation-funded project provided to the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University's College of Nursing in collaboration with the American Journal of Nursing, translates the evidence-based geriatric assessment tools in the Try This assessment series into cost-free, web-based resources including demonstration videos, and a corresponding print series featured in the AJN, developed to build geriatric assessment skills - the foundation for appropriate care of older adults.

Note: To properly view the Try This issues, please download the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Try This is also viewable on your Palm! To properly view the Try This issues on your Palm OS please download the latest Acrobat Reader for the Palm from the Adobe website.

Try This, a publication of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing, is a series of assessment tools where each issue focuses on a topic specific to the older adult population.

The content is directed to orient and encourage all nurses to understand the special needs of older adults and utilize the highest standards of practice in caring for the elderly.

Each Try This issue is a 2-page document with a description of why the topic is important when caring for older patients on the first page, and an assessment tool that can be administered in 20 minutes or less on the second page. The series is accessible here online and also as hard copy.

Permissions: Please download and print these issues for your use. Permission is granted for photocopying and disseminating for educational, non-profit use only. Try This can only be reproduced in its entirety. If you plan to include any Try This issues in a publication please contact us for permission. In addition, if you wish to use only an assessment tool, you must contact that publisher directly for permission.

*Try This instruments are designed to be used as screening tools, not for diagnosis.

If you have any questions or comments, or would like to be notified when new issues of Try This are posted, please email us at contact@consultgerirn.org. Please send all requests for Try This in the body of your e-mail. We do not open attachments as they can hold a virus.