Dawson Catherine M P, Sullivan Amy M, Schwartz Andrea W
VA Bedford Healthcare System, New England Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Bedford, Massachusetts, USA.
Department of Medicine - Section of Geriatrics, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
J Am Geriatr Soc. 2025 Jul;73(7):2204-2211. doi: 10.1111/jgs.19530. Epub 2025 May 24.
National and international organizations recommend that all clinicians attain core skills in caring for older adults. A key first step in devising a broad physician workforce preparedness strategy is assessing the current state of geriatrics medical education. Medical school curriculum leaders are well positioned to provide insight into geriatrics education for US medical students, but studies from recent decades are lacking.
For this cross-sectional study, we developed a national survey on geriatrics education, which was disseminated to Medical Education Deans at all 191 accredited allopathic and osteopathic US medical schools in 2021. We present descriptive and inferential statistics for closed-ended questions as well as themes derived from qualitative analysis for open-ended questions.
The survey response rate was 73% (140/191). The majority of respondents felt that geriatrics education should be incorporated into medical school curricula, such as in preclinical topics (98%) and through clinical exposure (92%). However, 29% of respondents assessed their school's geriatrics curriculum as "only a little" or "not at all" developed currently. The four strongest motivators for enhancing geriatrics curricula were identified as: a new accrediting body requirement in geriatrics, curricular funding, institutional support, and faculty championing.
Leaders in medical student education report substantial gaps between the current and desired state of geriatrics education at the national level. Our findings hold promise in guiding creative, multipronged approaches to ensure the US physician workforce is well equipped to care for older adults in any setting, from rural outpatient clinics to urban tertiary care centers.
国家和国际组织建议所有临床医生掌握照护老年人的核心技能。制定全面的医生队伍准备策略的关键第一步是评估老年医学教育的现状。医学院课程负责人能够很好地洞察美国医学生的老年医学教育情况，但近几十年来缺乏相关研究。
在这项横断面研究中，我们开展了一项关于老年医学教育的全国性调查，并于2021年分发给了美国191所获得认证的全科和骨科医学院的医学教育院长。我们展示了封闭式问题的描述性和推断性统计数据，以及从开放式问题的定性分析中得出的主题。
调查回复率为73%（140/191）。大多数受访者认为老年医学教育应纳入医学院课程，比如在临床前主题中（98%）以及通过临床实习（92%）。然而，29%的受访者认为他们学校的老年医学课程目前“只是略有”或“完全没有”开展。增强老年医学课程的四个最主要推动因素被确定为：老年医学新的认证机构要求、课程资金、机构支持和教师倡导。
医学生教育的领导者报告称，在国家层面，老年医学教育的现状与期望状态之间存在很大差距。我们的研究结果有望指导采取创造性的多管齐下方法，以确保美国医生队伍有能力在任何环境中照护老年人，从农村门诊诊所到城市三级医疗中心。
