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Long-term care experience in an internal medicine residency program.
Kalpana Cheeti1, Joshua D Schor
1Department of Medicine, Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
Journal of the American Medical Directors Association
|June 17, 2003
Summary
Internal medicine residents showed significant improvements in skills, knowledge, and attitudes after a long-term care rotation. This experience in nursing homes enhanced their geriatric care competencies.
Area of Science:
- Geriatric Medicine
- Medical Education
- Internal Medicine Training
Background:
- Long-term care (LTC) settings are crucial for geriatric education.
- Assessing the impact of LTC rotations on resident development is important for curriculum refinement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effect of an LTC experience on internal medicine residents' skills, knowledge, and attitudes.
- To determine if LTC rotations influence career choices in geriatrics.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study (February 1999-March 2000) involving 25 third-year residents.
- Residents completed validated pre- and post-rotation questionnaires assessing skills, knowledge, and attitudes.
- Rotation took place at a 300-bed LTC facility.
Main Results:
- Significant improvements in self-reported skills for histories, physicals, functional assessments, and advance directive discussions (P < 0.0005).
- All self-reported measures of geriatric knowledge and attitudes toward the elderly significantly increased.
- No significant alteration in career choice towards geriatrics was observed.
Conclusions:
- LTC rotations enhance medical residents' self-reported skills, knowledge, and attitudes in geriatrics.
- Findings support recommendations for incorporating LTC settings into geriatric medical education.
- Validated questionnaires and prospective data confirm the positive impact of LTC experience.