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Med Schools Put More Emphasis on Gerontology
Jack Gillum, USA TODAY
August 22, 2004
As the U.S. population ages, medical schools are looking for creative ways to boost new doctors' interest in the specialized needs of elderly patients.
Efforts range from more classroom training to setting up outings with older buddies.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, for example, recently paired 15 first-year medical students with local senior citizens; they went together to museums to view art.
The government's National Institute on Aging, which sponsored the program, found that after participating, 75% of the students said they were more willing to work with older patients in their future practices, compared with 13% of students who did not participate.
Experts say that a doctor's bedside manner is important in patient care, and that working with older patients early on develops those skills.
"You can't just spend 11.2 minutes with a person and really treat them," says Jeannine Mjoseth of the National Institutes of Health. "You have to know something about them."
A 2003 study examining the integration of medical students with older people, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, says health care professionals and physicians "tend to have a negative attitude toward older patients."
Some programs use a mentorship-style program, like in Baltimore, while other schools are involved in community partnerships - for example, sending medical students into local nursing homes to educate residents.
Integrating the care of elderly patients into regular training isn't just about getting more students to become gerontologists.
"We're teaching them that aging happens over time," says Bonnie Kantor, a physician and director of Ohio State University's Office of Geriatrics and Gerontology. "We want them to be excited about the caring of older adults."
Forty medical schools, including the University of California at Los Angeles, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin, received grants in 2000 to integrate four-year geriatric programs into current curricula, says M. Brownell Anderson of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
She says the programs that pair older patients with younger students are simply "powerful experiences" for both student and teacher.
"Our goal was not to create entire classes of students that would select geriatrics as their specialty, but that try to expose every medical student to geriatrics and gerontology," says a recent AAMC report.
About 34 million Americans are older than 65, according to 2000 Census data. That number is projected to rise by 6 million in 2010.
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