Summary: | Abstract Introduction As the population ages, there is more and more need for effective education for health care professionals on the care of older adults. The goal of this half-day workshop is to help health professional school faculty become effective teachers of selected topics in geriatric medicine. The workshop is appropriate for medical school faculty, as well as faculty from other allied health professional schools, such as pharmacy, physical and occupational therapy, nursing, and social work. We often offer this course to mixed groups of faculty from multiple health professions schools, which invites interprofessional collaboration and discussion. This workshop will prepare the faculty to incorporate geriatric medicine content into their own health professions schools' curricula. Students from schools of pharmacy, physical and occupational therapy, nursing, and social work can all benefit from learning the geriatric medicine taught in this workshop. Additionally, faculty participants may also choose to teach this material to their peers as a part of continuing professional education. Methods The module includes an extensive instructor's guide, complete with all the exercises, games, a short video, and handouts needed to teach this interactive workshop, as well as PowerPoint presentations that include speakers' notes. The workshop was designed by a geriatrician educator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), as a part of the UAB Reynolds Comprehensive Program to Strengthen Physician Training in Geriatric Medicine. Results To date, 54 faculty have participated in the workshops, which have been held six times in different parts of the state of Alabama. One-hundred percent of participants said they would recommend the workshop to a friend, and 85% gave its overall value the highest possible rating on a 5-point Likert scale. Ninety-six percent said they were “very likely” to incorporate what they learned during the workshop into their clinical or teaching practice. Discussion As the population ages, there is an increased need for effective health profession education on the topic of care for older adults. This workshop will allow faculty to incorporate geriatric medicine content into their own health professions schools' curricula.
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