title: Assessing geriatrics in undergraduate medical education: two different approaches.
abstract: Most medical schools do not have a separate course in geriatrics, but rather incorporate geriatrics into existing courses. Tracking and assessing curriculum content is more difficult in this setting. This paper describes and compares two approaches to assess curriculum content in geriatrics: a survey of course directors and a course objectives review. The results suggest that course directors report more geriatric content when asked as part of a regular survey than they identify as specific course objectives. Course objectives may be more reflective of the actual emphasis placed on aging-related material in courses. These two approaches appear to be complementary. Medical educators may find both self-report and course objective analysis to be useful and complementary in tracking geriatric material in the undergraduate medical curriculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 15 RMP Suite 211, Columbia, SC 29203, USA. pauleleazermd@cs.com
authors.forename: G Paul
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Eleazer
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liken
authors.forename: Victor A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Hirth
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: Amy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lucas
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Egbert
authors.forename: Rebecca H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Boland
authors.forename: Darryl
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wieland
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D003625:Data Collection; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D019370:Observation; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013022:South Carolina; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires