Session 8 | Age-Friendly Health Systems is a Careforce Strategy (LWP - October 2024)

JoAnne Reifsnyder PhD, MSN, MBA, RN, FAAN has held executive and leadership roles in hospice, hospice-related medication management and skilled nursing. She shifted her clinical practice from inpatient oncology to home hospice in the early 1980’s, beginning a career-long commitment to serious illness care. Dr. Reifsnyder has held numerous organizational and board leadership positions with a focus on palliative and end of life care. She developed one of the first palliative care minor concentrations at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and most recently developed leaders through nursing and interprofessional graduate programs at the University of Maryland. She has an active management consulting and executive coaching practice, through which she works with a range of organizations and individuals to develop and lead serious illness care, age-friendly care, and complex chronic illness management services. She is a frequent speaker on leadership topics, has authored many peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and is a co-author and editor of three textbooks.

Taylor McMahon, RN, CNDLTC, serves as the Director of Nursing at The Willows Presbyterian Senior Care Network in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, while also pursuing further education at Chatham University. McMahon’s love of geriatrics nursing began when she started her career at Presbyterian Senior Care Network in 2014. Engaged in the Pennsylvania-based "Revisiting the Teaching Nursing Home" initiative, currently in Phase II as the Pennsylvania Teaching Nursing Home Collaborative (PA TNHC). Through the PA TNHC, The Willows is actively involved in implementing Age-Friendly Health Systems. As part of a broader organizational strategy, they are working to extend the AFHS approach beyond their facility, fostering its adoption in other areas within the Presbyterian Senior Care Network. The Willows is partnering with the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing to establish a “teaching” environment where students, academics, and healthcare workers collaborate to improve care for residents and foster nursing careers in nursing homes and geriatrics. She is passionate about engaging student nurses in post-acute care and has led guest lectures at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, focusing on neurocognitive disorders. She supported the nursing home team in quality improvement efforts to decrease hospital readmissions in the development and implementation of COPD/CHF clinical pathways, risk assessment tools, and education. Currently, she is participating in the American Delirium Society’s Borten Nursing Fellowship and recently completed the American Hospital Association Next Generation Leadership Fellowship with a project focus on embedding the Age-Friendly Framework in the affordable housing sector and aid in personal and professional development to better serve her team and residents.