As the United States marks 250 years, another milestone is reshaping the nation: Americans themselves are growing older. The country’s population of older adults is expanding rapidly, bringing new urgency to how communities prepare for and provide their care. Across Texas, caregivers are navigating those challenges every day.
More than 57.8 million Americans are aged 65 and older, a number projected to increase to nearly 81 million by 2040. Adults over age 80 represent the fastest-growing segment of the population. In Texas, there were about 4.36 million Texans aged 65 or older in 2024, representing about 14% of the state’s population.
Jacki Hecht, MSN, RN, is personally connected to those stats and sees it every day as the project coordinator for the Luci Baines Johnson and Ian J. Turpin Center for Gerontological Nursing at UT Austin.
“Our population is aging, my mom is aging, I’m aging, so there’s a growing awareness of how do we help people thrive through the aging process,” Hecht said. “Historically, we respected and looked up to our elders, but more recently, aging has become stigmatized. Nowadays, once people get past a certain age, they get cast aside. Wisdom and experience don’t always get acknowledged.”
Hecht’s focus has been on a specific project, which provides continuing healthcare education for providers working in long-term care.
“We focus more on best practices in nursing homes,” Hecht said. “It’s about good, resident-centered clinical care to managing nursing homes.”
The Center received a grant to provide free online courses. To date, the Center has served more than 6,000 long-term care providers.
“One of our main initiatives is to offer continuing education for nurses, certified nursing assistants and long-term care administrators, to help them stay updated on various aspects of quality patient care,” Hecht said. “All of these courses are online at no charge. Nurses and other healthcare providers can take our courses for continuing education credit, which is needed for them to renew their licensure. It also helps them stay up to date on guidelines and proper procedures on topics like infection control, managing antibiotics and reducing antipsychotic drug use.”
Hecht said there are a growing number of School of Nursing students who are showing an interest in working with aging patients. Students are interested in going out to practice in the community and getting and receiving quality mentorship in working with older adults.
“The more quality opportunities we can create for students to work with older adults in the community, the more interest they’ll have in working with this important population,” she said.
The Luci Baines Johnson and Ian J. Turpin Center for Gerontological Nursing, helmed by Dr. Jung Kwak and Dr. Gayle Timmerman, helps ensure they don’t have to navigate them without the latest knowledge, resources and training.