Kootenai | Kootenai Health | Issue 2, 2018

By Julie Holt, Kootenai Health Foundation president As the community hospital for a growing population, Kootenai Health continues to expand to accommodate more patients and their families. As you walk through the facility, you may notice new additions such as the east expansion and Family Birth Center, a larger emergency and surgical department, and the names of those who helped fund these projects proudly displayed on the walls. Reading the names of our donors is always a treat because they are the names of our friends and neighbors. They are the people you know who care about our community and understand the importance of having a strong hospital to serve this community. When the health care needs of a community begin to change or grow, it isn’t just the facilities that need to expand; health care providers must also adapt to meet the needs of the patients they care for. This need is the reason the Kootenai Health Foundation partners with generous donors to create scholarships and opportunities for the staff at Kootenai Health to pursue additional training and education so they can bring new programs and higher levels of care to our community. GrowingourNICHE People age 65-plus are the fastest growing patient population in our area. As people advance in age, they require specialized care. In 2015, Kootenai began the GOLDENYEARS journey to enhance senior care by enrolling several staff members in the Nurses Improving Care for Health system Elders (NICHE) training program. Together, these nurse leaders have trained 15 additional nurses to become geriatric resource nurses through the NICHE program. These specially trained nurses provide support to other nurses and family members caring for seniors with unique needs, such as those with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Recognizing the critical role training like this plays in the care nurses provide to patients, Coeur d’Alene residents Julie and David Levine decided to get involved. They contacted the Kootenai Health Foundation to talk about how they could Kootenai Health nurses receive special training to care for seniors help support this important work. “The NICHE nurses’ commitment to engage in specialized training to support the growing community of seniors is very impressive, and we are happy to be able to support their efforts in this small way,” Julie said. Help forHealthy Community support To learn more about the Foundation, call (208) 625-4438 , email foundation@kh.org or visit KH.org/foundation . 20