The fourteen clinical protocols in this book address key clinical conditions and circumstances likely to be encountered by a hospital nurse caring for older adults. They represent "best practices" for acute care of the elderly as developed by nursing experts working with the Hartford Foundation's Nurses Improving Care to the Hospitalized Elderly project (NICHE). The protocols reflect both current research in geriatric care and prototype for nationally promulgated nursing standards. Although the protocols were developed for acute care, they can be easily modified to work in other practice settings, such as the nursing home or home care.