Primary care for healthy aging

The need to promote and maintain health will intensify with larger numbers of older adults seeking not just a long life but a healthy life as well. With a shift from a model of illness and cure to a model of wellness and care, the advanced practice nurse is the ideal health professional to implement a model of health care shaped by a philosophy of both primary and long-term care for the older population. This model includes (a) thoroughly integrated strategies for health promotion and disease prevention, (b) interdisciplinary, comprehensive geriatric assessment, (c) care management for integration and coordination of services, and (d) emphasis on function and quality of life as outcomes of treatment.