Doreen Matters, program director for the Duke Elder Family/Caregiver (DEFT) Training Center, recently presented at the NC State Conference for the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists. She spoke on the development, implementation and preliminary outcomes of DEFT, a program that supports caregivers of elder patients with education and training, prior to hospital discharge. The DEFT team is beginning work on a train the trainer model and hopes to partner with local health systems in North Carolina later this year.

The conference was hosted at the Millennium Hotel in Durham and included more than 100 clinical nurse specialists from across North Carolina.