Assessing geriatrics in undergraduate medical education: two different approaches.
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.
Eleazer
G Paul
GP
Department of Internal Medicine, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, 15 RMP Suite 211, Columbia, SC 29203, USA. pauleleazermd@cs.com
Liken
Michelle
M
Hirth
Victor A
VA
Johnson
David
D
Lucas
Amy
A
Egbert
John
J
Boland
Rebecca H
RH
Wieland
Darryl
D
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