GAPNs have a significant role to play in the care of older people. They provide focused health screening, counseling, crisis intervention, and comprehensive care to this population. They serve as important advocates in directing appropriate utilization of resources and making referrals that promote continuity of care geared to the needs of older adults. GAPNs provide essential educational services to older clients, their families, and other nursing and health care professionals involved in their care. They are innovators in the field of gerontological nursing and geriatric care and initiate or collaborate in research aimed at improving the health status of older persons. GAPNs are true providers of geriatric care, with great potential for serving an increasingly aging society.

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Summ aryAir embolism from the left heart cavities after cardiopulmonary bypass still carries a high mortality a nd morbidity. To prevent this danger we have standardized a surgical tech niq ue basical ly co nsisting of estab lishing an acute arteriovenous f ist ula between the asce ndi ng aorta and t he right atrium immediately after coming off bypass. A retrospective ana lysis o f neuro logical complicatio ns showed that in 457 valvular pat ients operated upon before the use of this tech niq ue, 33 had neurological lesions (7 .2 %), as opposed to 34 o ut of 8 34 patie nt s (4 .1 %) after its use (p < 0.0251 .