Nephrology division, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Nephrology division, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Aging Dis. 2024 Aug 1;15(4):1482-1486. doi: 10.14336/AD.2023.0925.
Our society is aging much faster than it was before, and this phenomenon demands concerted action to optimize geriatric care. Presentations, clinical features, and management decision making are distinct between older adults and the general population, and to enhance care quality, there remains unmet needs for undergraduate geriatric education. Among all geriatric syndromes that clinically matter, frailty is particularly instrumental, serving as the overarching phenotype that connects other geriatric conditions and predisposes individuals to adverse outcomes. However, understandings for frailty, or "literacy for frailty" is often poor among healthcare professionals, and misidentification, terminology confusion, and uncertainty surrounding the care of frail older adults, are not uncommon. This lack of frailty literacy undoubtedly contributes to the suboptimal geriatric care patients receive. We therefore propose a rationally designed, concise, and structured program for eliciting medical students' motivation for understanding frailty during their undergraduate period. Our increasing-frailty-literacy program includes 7 modules, accommodating the terminology, integrative pathogenesis, epidemiology of frailty, appropriate screening and identification tool selection, prognostication and patient communication, and individualization of treatment strategies. In combination with digital technologies and hands-on practice opportunities, we believe that our curriculum can promote medical students' learning efficacy for frailty and improve geriatric care for the current generation.
我们的社会老龄化速度比以往任何时候都要快，这种现象需要我们采取协调一致的行动来优化老年护理。老年人与一般人群在临床表现、管理决策等方面存在明显差异，为了提高护理质量，本科老年医学教育仍有未满足的需求。在所有具有临床意义的老年综合征中，衰弱尤为重要，它是连接其他老年疾病并使个体易发生不良结局的总体表型。然而，医护人员对衰弱的理解（即“衰弱知识普及”）往往较差，对衰弱的识别错误、术语混淆以及对虚弱老年人护理的不确定性并不少见。这种对衰弱知识的缺乏无疑导致了患者接受的老年护理不理想。因此，我们提出了一个合理设计的、简洁的、结构化的方案，以激发医学生在本科阶段理解衰弱的动机。我们的“逐步增加衰弱知识”课程包括 7 个模块，涵盖了术语、综合发病机制、衰弱的流行病学、适当的筛查和识别工具选择、预后和患者沟通以及治疗策略的个体化。结合数字技术和实践机会，我们相信我们的课程可以提高医学生对衰弱的学习效果，并改善当前一代的老年护理。
