Health Soc Work. 2022 Jul 13;47(3):185-194. doi: 10.1093/hsw/hlac012.
The aging population and shortage of primary care physicians lead to increasing gaps in access to rural geriatric healthcare. Of concern is the lack of access to geriatric expertise, leading to adverse effects on rural older adults' health outcomes and quality of life. The Geriatric Rural Extension of Expertise through Telegeriatric Services (also known as GREETS) project surveyed rural physical and behavioral healthcare practitioners to identify gaps in geriatric competencies in the rural workforce. Using the Qualtrics platform, a survey was distributed to professional membership lists throughout the State of Michigan. A total of 106 responses were completed, of which 50 were from respondents who identified their profession as a social worker. As would be expected based on social workers' scope of practice and the settings in which they provide services, social worker respondents noted a higher need than the other practitioner respondents for education related to (a) managing chronic pain, (b) managing care of patients with multiple chronic conditions, (c) having serious illness conversations, (d) diagnosing dementia, and (e) discussing advance care planning. Having identified these needs provides a basis for identifying and implementing training and resources for social work and other disciplines involved in geriatric care and services.
人口老龄化和初级保健医生短缺导致农村老年医疗保健服务的可及性差距不断扩大。令人担忧的是，农村地区缺乏老年医学专业知识，这对农村老年人的健康结果和生活质量产生了不利影响。通过远程老年服务扩大专家对农村的影响（也称为 GREETS）项目调查了农村身体和行为保健从业者，以确定农村劳动力中老年人能力方面的差距。该调查使用 Qualtrics 平台向密歇根州的专业会员名单分发。共完成了 106 份回复，其中 50 份来自自称为社会工作者的受访者。根据社会工作者的实践范围以及他们提供服务的环境，社会工作者受访者比其他从业者受访者更需要与以下方面相关的教育：（a）管理慢性疼痛，（b）管理患有多种慢性疾病的患者的护理，（c）进行严肃的病情谈话，（d）诊断痴呆症，以及（e）讨论预先护理计划。确定这些需求为识别和实施针对参与老年护理和服务的社会工作者和其他学科的培训和资源提供了基础。
