Nurses should participate in burgeoning field to extend lifespans

Nurses, as the most trusted healthcare professionals, should advocate for state and federal policies supporting a paradigm shift toward understanding aging as a lifelong biological process warranting communication, prevention efforts and person-centered care, states a Nursing Outlook article. The authors say few nurses are involved in geroscience, which recognizes biological aging as the most important risk factor for adverse health outcomes. By targeting fundamental aging mechanisms, such as loss of lean body mass and inactivity, health professionals can extend lifespans. Nurses can reframe the aging narrative, translate molecular science into daily habits, personalize geroscience-based care plans and discuss aging triggers to patients in understandable language. The authors outline how nurse educators, clinicians, researchers and policymakers can get involved in the burgeoning geroscience field. (Nursing Outlook article, 9/22/26)