nursing is crucial in increasing the number of nurses who pursue a specialty in geriatrics. Not only should nursing school programs focus on the care of the geriatric population, but also education should be available on-site at facilities caring for the elderly. Nurse Educators and Nurse Leaders are important roles that can be beneficial in the nursing home environment. Nurse leaders play a critical role in mediating between owners-managers and facility staff, and are also keenly aware of the need for geriatrics training among staff. Geriatric training for nurses and nursing assistants can increase quality of patient care and improve employee retention rates in the nursing home environment. Gerontology vs Geriatrics The terms Gerontology and Geriatrics are often used interchangeably, but there are differences between the two. Gerontology is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of ageing. Geriatrics, or geriatric medicine, is a specialty that focuses on health care of elderly people. Gerontological Nurses need to know how to care for illnesses that affect the aging, the other factors affect aging, and how these impact people. History Gerontological nurses walk a tight rope stretching across the centuries from the past to the present that introduced the notion that those who entered could survive and recover. The modern hospital is 18th century innovation and those who entered were youths with acute injuries rather than chronic illnesses heavily seen in modern society. Beginning in the 1980s, nurse researchers have pursued answers on older adults about their well-being, and those suffering from serious chronic conditions.Bowers2020/> The NIH played a powerful role in advancement of geriatric nursing science in the 1980s and 1990s, since then the NIH has funding nurse investigators who are transforming understanding of gerontological nursing. Although nurses published articles about care of older adults as early as 1904, the specialty of gerontological nursing emerged beginning in the 1950s, with the publication of the first gerontological nursing textbook. Pioneers in the field of gerontological nursing include Vera McIver, Doris Schwartz, Mary Opal Walanin. A geriatric nursing specialty group was formed by the American Nurses Association in 1966, with the name changed to the Gerontological Nursing Division in 1976. In the US, the National Gerontological Nursing Association was founded in 1984 and in 1985 the Canadian Gerontological Nursing Association was founded. Standards of practice for gerontological nursing were published by the American Nurses Association in 1971. In the