Education for Medical Students, Residents and Fellows

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About our Faculty

In teaching Geriatrics to our medical students, resident physicians, and fellows, the Department of Geriatrics depends on both a core set of Boonshoft School of Medicine, Wright State University, and Dayton Veterans Administration Medical Center-based faculty, as well as volunteer faculty from all over the Miami Valley with them affiliated with local area hospitals, institutions, hospices, and home care agencies. Most faculty members in the Department of Geriatrics hold joint faculty appointments in other clinical departments within the Boonshoft School of Medicine.

Other participating faculty members from the Wright State University are in related areas to the care of older adults, such as the School of Nursing, Kinesiology, and Health Sciences, the School of Professional Psychology, the School of Social Work and Human Services, and the Departments of Sociology and Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering. All are helping advance education and training experiences in geriatrics.

Curriculum

photo of a medical student and patient

The principles of geriatric medicine are integrated across the medical school curriculum, especially in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course that is delivered in the first and second year and in the third-year Family Medicine and Internal Medicine Clerkships. Other courses during the Foundations Phase of the curriculum, such as neuroscience, pathology, and pharmacology, also address the effect of aging on the structure and function of the human body.

Foundation Phase students also have the opportunity to participate in service-learning activities that involve older adults. The Department of Geriatrics initiated and established the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) for our hospital partner, Premier Health at Miami Valley Hospital.  Other such opportunities involve work with the local Alzheimer's Association on its helpline or assisting with the Early Stage Alzheimer's Disease Support Group, and an ongoing Fall Risk Reduction Program in collaboration with senior centers in the Miami Valley.

The Family Medicine Clerkship experience includes a supervised home visit to an older adult during which the student does a comprehensive assessment of cognition, mood, and functional status. As well as evaluates the appropriateness of the person's medical and medication regimen. The Internal Medicine Clerkship experience is focused on the clinical care provided in both the skilled and post-acute. as well as ambulatory care. The Department also offers fourth-year electives in both Geriatrics and Hospice and Palliative Care, with the senior medical student acting as a sub-intern on these full-time month-long rotations.

The Wright State University Family Medicine Residents spend time with our geriatricians and interprofessional teams during their 2nd and 3rd years of training. There are two distinct month-long rotations, with training in skilled and post-acute care medicine, hospice and palliative care, nursing home medicine, home care, and primary and specialty ambulatory geriatrics, and a one day per month longitudinal rotation for those two years with a specific patient panel at a local nursing facility.

The Wright State University Internal Medicine Residents spend time with our geriatricians and geriatric nurse practitioners during their 3rd year of training on a month-long rotation, with training in skilled and post-acute medicine, hospice and palliative care, and nursing home medicine.  This rotation takes place at the Dayton Veterans Administration Medical Center.

The Department is also home to 12-month clinical fellowships in both Geriatrics and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. These fellowships enable the advanced learners the opportunity to be trained and then board-certified in their respective fields. The Department also welcomes learners to complete training in both sub-specialties. More information on the fellowships can be found at Geriatric Medicine Fellowship and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship.

Continuing Medical Education

The education of community physicians, other health care professionals, and the general public on issues relating to the care of the older adult is one of the integrated goals of the department. Visit the CME calendar for upcoming CME opportunities.