Clinical Nurse Specialists — Gerontology

Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) — Gerontology work with and support:

• Health NZ community teams
• older persons' health services
• general practices
• care agencies
• non-government organisation
• aged-residential care facilities.

CNS — Gerontology focus on the clinical assessment of people living in the community with:

• increasing frailty
• declining mobility
• issues from falls
• worsening incontinence
• the need to take multiple medicines (polypharmacy)
• general and cognitive decline
• issues managing at home
• complex health needs in aged-residential care facilities — if requested
• health issues that are not always well defined.

They also offer higher level of care reviews for reversable causes if required in the community.

Your healthcare provider or other healthcare specialist can refer you to the CNS — Gerontology team.