An Innovative Community Geriatrics Elective to Teach Year 4 Medical Students About Nursing Home Care

In Singapore, Geriatrics is core curriculum in medical undergraduate training. Year two medical students are introduced to aging in a four hour program based in a nursing home. In their final year they spend one month in geriatric medicine as part of their 3 month internal medicine posting. In the fourth year there is an elective period of six weeks where they choose postings that they would like to spend time to learn more about the subject. There are 65 NHs in Singapore with 9495 beds as compared to 6 acute hospitals with 7500 beds. The NHs have more patients for students to learn from. The residents are also more stable to engage the students and participate in their learning. The NH also has unique aspects of Long Term care like managing severely disabled individuals including dementia, tube feeding, decision making and choices, ethics, pain, reversible conditions like delirium, depression and functional decline. In 2010, a course to teach medical care of older people in nursing homes was developed. The aims of the course were to teach geriatric medicine in the nursing home environment, to understand aspects of end-of-life care such as tube feedings, pain and symptom control, ethics, families' and residents' goals. Twenty students have enrolled, and the course has been fully subscribed each year. This is a description of the course and its effects on students. Aims: to describe the content and implementation of the course. The course was funded by the University of Singap...
Source: Journal of the American Medical Directors Association - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Poster Abstracts Source Type: research