An Update on AGS Fellows-in-Training

Spring 2001

I had always wanted to teach and do research as part of my medical career. I figured that working in a university could provide me this opportunity. Therefore, after completing my two-year fellowship in academic geriatric medicine, I accepted a position along with another geriatrician (Dr. Mike Jeong) at a medical school to start a geriatric department. The administration at the school had become aware of the fact that present and future physicians are going to face an ever growing geriatric population but that the students had little to no training in the field. To ameliorate the situation, they felt it was necessary to start a geriatric program at the school.

We looked forward to the idea of starting a new program. This offered us opportunities that probably don't exist in already established programs. We will be able to incorporate our own vision of what geriatrics should be into the curriculum. This will give us the chance to try innovative ideas and apply the different skills we learned in teaching. There is also the great pleasure in knowing that you took part in the education of future physicians. But, there have been some drawbacks to our project; they include the problem of starting from nothing, the hard work needed to get changes implemented, and the challenge presented in changing the minds of many on campus into accepting geriatrics as a legitimate field that needs to be included into the curriculum. Change has not been easy and has been very slow in coming.

Some of our goals include:

• The introduction of a geriatric curriculum in years 1-4,this includes biology of aging in the first year, a geriatric course in the second year, a geriatric rotation in the third year, and opportunity to do research or extra rotations in geriatrics in the fourth year.
• The involvement of our department in the education of interns and residents in regards to geriatrics.
• The participation of other allied health professionals in providing geriatric education to the community and other health care providers.
• The creation of a geriatric research program
• Expanding the number of geriatricians in the department
• The start of a geriatric fellowship.

In an ideal world, we would have no problems implementing our goals, but we know that we have a very rough road ahead of us. The satisfaction will come with the attainment of our goals, and the establishment of a successful geriatric program at the University.

Our accomplishments thus far include the creation of a four week required rotation in geriatric medicine for third year students and a small block of hours of geriatric lectures for second year. Making changes to the medical curriculum has proven to be challenging, there were and continue to be, numerous roadblocks to overcome, many put up by other faculty members.

The opportunity to create a real multidisciplinary geriatric approach to curriculum is offered by the fact that there are other health professional schools on campus, including a pharmacy college, graduate nursing school, PT school, PA school, and a center on disability. One of the benefits to come out of this synergy is the formation of a geriatric collaborative at the university consisting of faculty from the above-mentioned schools. The purpose of the collaborative is to use a multidisciplinary team approach to providing educational programs to the community, health professionals, and the university body.

Some of the important resources that we have used to develop our program include the American Geriatric Society (AGS), American Medical Directors Association (AMDA), and geriatric programs at other institutions. The AGS national meeting is a great place for us to obtain the latest information on geriatric curriculum and on networking with other academicians. Other academic geriatric programs across the country have been very helpful in sharing information and resources with us. This truly shows the camaraderie that is shared between geriatricians.

We know that we have a long road ahead of us, but we are sure that others have met with similar pleasures and difficulties in developing their programs. In the end, we feel that geriatrics is a growing field that is ever in need of geriatricians to fill the rising demand for academic positions, and that we are helping fill that need.

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