Advancing geriatrics education: An efficient faculty development program for academic hospitalists increases geriatric teaching

Abstract

BACKGROUND:Hospitalists care for an increasing number of older patients. As teachers, they are uniquely positioned to teach geriatric skills to residents. Faculty development programs focused on geriatrics teaching skills are often expensive and time‐intensive, and may not enhance trainee learning.OBJECTIVES:To evaluate a train‐the‐trainer (TTT) model designed to equip hospitalists with knowledge and skills to teach geriatric topics to residents in a time‐constrained, resource‐limited environment.DESIGN:Cross‐sectional survey.SETTING:Academic tertiary hospital.INTERVENTION:A 10‐hour geriatric curriculum, the Reynolds Program for Advancing Geriatrics Education (PAGE), cotaught by geriatricians and hospitalists at preexisting noon conferences over 1 year that consisted of exportable teaching modules.MEASUREMENTS:Session leaders' and faculty participants' satisfaction, hospitalist geriatrics teaching self‐efficacy, residents' self‐report of frequency of geriatric teaching received, and frequency of geriatric skill use.RESULTS:The curriculum was highly rated by session leaders and hospitalist faculty. Hospitalists perceived improvement in geriatric teaching skills, indicating (1: “unlikely” to 5: “highly likely”) that they are likely to use these teaching tools in the future (M = 4.61, standard deviation [SD] = 0.53). Residents reported both significantly more geriatrics teaching by hospitalists (P < 0.05) and a borderline significant increase in their practice of geriatric clinical skills (P = 0.05).CONCLUSIONS:A time‐efficient geriatric faculty development program for hospitalists suggests improvement in the amount and quality of geriatrics teaching and skill practice among faculty and residents at an academic medical center. Concise faculty development programs within preexisting faculty meetings may be a feasible, successful method to increase geriatric skill development in the hospital setting. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2010; © 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Perceived self-efficacy gains following an interprofessional faculty development programme in geriatrics education

“…Wider implications of this study suggest that an interprofessional FDP in geriatrics may serve to increase confidence and interest in working with older adults, while also motivating changes in interprofessional practice (Berkman et al, 2000;Mazotti et al, 2010;Warshaw et al, 2007;Williams et al, 2008). The Partnership for Health in Aging competencies combined with Bandura's self-efficacy metric (2006) proved to be an effective assessment tool for measuring changes in perceived self-efficacy following the VGEC's interprofessional FDP in geriatrics.…”

“…Key findings from the study indicated that participants reported improvements in teaching behaviour, greater educational involvement, and expanded collegial networks. Other faculty development programmes have also been successful in advancing geriatrics knowledge and enhancing teaching practice for academic hospitalists through the utilisation of a train-the-trainer model (Mazotti et al, 2010).…”

Advancement of geriatrics education

“…Mazotti et al 1 describe a train-the-trainer (TTT) program for hospitalists that enables hospitalists to teach geriatric medicine to house staff. We agree that it is important to ensure geriatric medicine proficiency for all hospitalists.…”

Advancing Geriatrics Education Through a Faculty Development Program for Geriatrics‐Oriented Clinician Educators

“…Few of these addressed pedagogical or andragogical skills such as teaching and curriculum design. More‐recent geriatrics‐focused resident and faculty development programs have also continued the trend of emphasizing the teaching of geriatrics content …”

“…More-recent geriatrics-focused resident and faculty development programs have also continued the trend of emphasizing the teaching of geriatrics content. [9][10][11] In light of the growing need to advance geriatrics care, educators at Duke University offered a program to train geriatrician and nongeriatrician faculty to design, implement, and evaluate geriatrics education curricula. This article describes the program and the results of a mixedmethod evaluation ascertaining the program's effect on participants and their home institutions.…”