Enhancing the Geriatric Psychiatry Rotation for Medical Students: From Passivity to Participation

Enhancing the Geriatric Psychiatry Rotation for Medical Students: From Passivity to Participation

Grant:
Investigating Student Learning Grant (ISL)
Academic Year:
2010 - 2011 (June 1, 2010 through May 31, 2011)
Funding Requested:
$4,000.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
mblazek
lstruble
Overview of the Project:
Negative attitudes and stigma toward older patients withdementia are pervasive among medical students andother health professions (1,2,3). Despite thetremendous demand for geropsychiatric care for peoplewith dementia, the number of medical school graduateschoosing to enter the field of Geriatric Psychiatry iswoefully inadequate (4,5,6). Studies have documentedthat clinical encounters with older patients have apositive effect on students' sensitivity to geriatric issuesand attitudes toward older people (1,2,7), and therefore,researchers suggest that geriatric psychiatry programscreate exemplary initiatives in the early years of medicaleducation (8). We developed an EnhancedGeropsychiatric Experience (EGE)medical students in dementia care assisted livingfacilities. The clinical rotation was designed to exposemedical students to patients with dementia in along-term care setting with the goals of increasingstudent participation and comfort level, changingnegative attitudes towards patients with dementia, andincreasing student interest in the field of geropsychiatry.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:
1. What is the impact of an Enhanced GeropsychiatricExperience (EGE) at a long-term care facility onthird-year medical students’ attitudes toward patientswith dementia?2. How do EGE attitudinal changes compare withstudents who are in the usual Geriatric Psychiatryclincial outpatient rotation (traditional rotation)?3. Does this more active experience positively affectmedical students’ interest in the fields of geriatrics,psychiatry or geriatric psychiatry?
Project Achievements:
IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHINGThe EGE had a positive impact on medical students’comfort with and attitudes toward patients with dementia.The long-term care setting, with a consistent patientpopulation and fewer time constraints, provides a richlearning environment for observation of patients in their“real life” setting.If long-term care sites are not available, provideopportunities for:• Independent interaction with patients• Continuity of care observing the effects of interventions.• Exposure to patients in different stages of dementiaIMPACT ON PROGRAM:Most immediately and practically, the results of this study revealed that specific subsets of students were receiving little or no contact with elderly patients or patients with dementia, so clerkship location assignments were adjusted. In a broader sense, these findings reenforced a department-wide goal in Psychiatry to increase medical student face to face interaction with faculty members rather than residents.
Continuation:
The Enhanced Geropsychiatric Experience will continue and we will attempt to expand it to include more students in future years. We will submit a paper on the outcome of the project and include the student reaction to their experience of working collaboratively with a nurse practitioner.
Dissemination:
The poster was presented in the Department of Psychiatry at the annual Silverman Conference, at the Univeristy of Michagan Medical Education Day, and nationally at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry,
Advice to your Colleagues:
In retropsct, I think our goals for the project were idealistcally and unrealistically grand. As we got further into the project we were able to focus our questions for the purpose of the ISL poster and will pursue the offshoots in the future. Also, after we received responses to our survey, we realized we would have liked to ask different questions or word our questions in a different way to be less ambiguous. Therefore, in the future I would use a previously established survey rather than creating our own (which was actually a project in itself!)
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