Graduate Center for Gerontology, University of Kentucky, 306 Health Sciences Building, 900 South Limestone, Lexington, KY 40536-0200, USA.
Gerontologist. 2012 Oct;52(5):607-18. doi: 10.1093/geront/gns006. Epub 2012 Mar 6.
Relative to the overall population, older adults consume a disproportionally large percentage of health care resources. Despite advocacy and efforts initiated more than 30 years ago, the number of providers with specialized training in geriatrics is still not commensurate with the growing population of older adults. This contribution provides a contemporary update on the status of geriatric education and explores how geriatric coverage is valued, how geriatric competence is defined, and how students are evaluated for geriatric competencies.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with curriculum representatives from 7 health profession disciplines in a case study of one academic medical center.
Geriatric training varies across health professions' disciplines. Although participants recognized the unique needs of older patients and valued geriatric coverage, they identified shortage of time in packed curricula, lack of geriatrics-trained educators, absence of financial incentive, and low student demand (resulting from limited exposure to older adults and gerontological stereotyping) as barriers to improving geriatric training.
Progress in including geriatric training within curricula across the health professions continues to lag behind need as a result of the continuing presence of barriers identified several decades ago. There remains an urgent need for institutional commitment to enhance geriatric education as a component of health professions curricula.
与整个人口相比，老年人使用医疗资源的比例不成比例地高。尽管 30 多年前就已经提出了倡导和努力，但接受老年医学专业培训的提供者数量仍然与不断增长的老年人口不成比例。本研究对老年医学教育的现状进行了现代更新，并探讨了老年医学覆盖范围的价值、老年医学能力的定义以及如何评估学生的老年医学能力。
对一个学术医疗中心的 7 个健康专业学科的课程代表进行了半结构化访谈。
老年医学培训在不同的健康专业学科中存在差异。尽管参与者认识到老年患者的特殊需求，并重视老年医学的覆盖范围，但他们也指出了课程时间紧张、缺乏接受过老年医学培训的教育者、缺乏经济激励以及学生需求低（由于与老年人接触有限和对老年学的刻板印象）等因素限制了老年医学培训的改善。
由于几十年前确定的障碍持续存在，包括在整个健康专业课程中纳入老年医学培训的进展仍然落后于需求。迫切需要机构承诺将老年医学教育作为健康专业课程的一个组成部分加以加强。
