Residential Aged Care Integration Programme (RACIP) 
This Residential Aged Care Integration Programme is an innovative system to integrate care for older people living in aged care facilities and to support Residential Aged Care (RAC) staff. The programme employs a team of Gerontology Nurse Specialists (GNSs) and Wound Care Specialists led by Janet Parker, Gerontology Nurse Practitioner.

The RACIP team works closely with aged care providers in the following ways: 

• GNSs provide outreach services to aged care facilities in the WDHB region. These include comprehensive gerontology assessments and care coordination across primary and secondary care. 
• GNSs provide proactive education and clinical coaching for RAC staff at individual facilities in the WDHB region. Topics to date include cardiac, respiratory, gastrointestinal and urinary issues, to name a few. 
• GNSs and other specialty WDHB staff provide ongoing quarterly education sessions specifically targeting the needs of residents in aged care facilities in the WDHB region.
• A collaborative workgroup (involving clinical and managerial staff from WDHB and RAC facilities) developed the highly acclaimed RN Care Guides for Residential Aged Care. These Care Guides provide information on common gerontology care issues and have been distributed free to all RAC facilities in the WDHB region. The 3rd edition will be available on this site early in 2012. Hard copies will also be available  through the New Zealand Nurses Organisation at a reasonable price. 
  The workgroup has also developed the Caregiver Guides for Residential Aged Care; a set of six A3 posters that prompt caregivers to observe for early warning signs of deterioration and report this to the registered nurse. These are available electronically here and in hard copy from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation.
  The work group in partnership with the University of Auckland and the Ministry of Health has developed the Medicines Care Guides for Residential Aged Care. These are available here in electronic form.
• Wound Care Nurse Specialists provide wound care intervention and coaching aimed at preventing the complications of chronic wounds.
• Contact rescareproject@waitematadhb.govt.nz for further information.

The initial implementation was staged with half the facilities enrolled over 2007/2008 and the remainder enrolled March 2009. The initial programme development and implementation was led by Dr Michal Boyd, Gerontology Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Leader in Community Services for Older Adults, who also holds an academic position with the University of Auckland.  The results of the randomised experimental/controlled evaluation showed that adults in the control group were twice as likely to have an acute admission compared with those in the intervention group.