It is timely for the Annual Review of Nursing Research series to focus on research in gerontological nursing for a number of reasons. As is now common knowledge, the actual number and relative percentage of elders are increasing rapidly throughout the world. The need for high-quality gerontological nursing care has never been as great as it is today—and this need will increase in the foreseeable future. A significant amount of research in specific areas of gerontological nursing—notably the management of common conditions in elders and settings of care—has been completed over the past two decades. Thus, it is a good time to look back at what has been done using systematic research syntheses to serve as a basis for our next steps. Current trends in public health and science call for rethinking traditional approaches to the care of elders by gerontological nurses. Finally, there are areas of research that, although acknowledged as important in gerontological nursing, have not received the attention they deserve from researchers. Volume 20, therefore, looks back to summarize our knowledge from research over the past two decades and looks forward by projecting new directions for gerontological nursing and gerontological nursing research.