Discusses the following: barriers to geriatrics education, teaching strategies (such as communication with patients, acceptance of one's own aging, interdisciplinary teamwork), and curriculum design for undergraduate and graduate study. (Contains 26 references.) (SK)

The educator-advocate as gerontologist must simultaneously develop a core training in aging, induce other faculty members to add gerontological content, build interdisciplinary bridges with other academic units, and influence other educational institutions. (Editor)

A survey of 72 pharmacy schools shows 22 percent of the schools had no geriatric coursework, 35 percent offered only courses in which the geriatric content averaged under 12 percent of course content, and 43 percent offered courses that focused primarily on geriatrics, most including a major clinical component. (Author/MSE)

A program sensitizing health professional students to the elderly's health care needs produced student information gains in the area of aging, favorable changes in attitudes toward the elderly, and positive course evaluations. The broad range of evaluation approaches and the multi-year replications demonstrate the course's value in a pharmacy…

Assessed the attitudes of students, faculties, and practitioners associated with two schools of medicine toward gerontologic/geriatric medical education including specific items relating to course content during the preclinical and clinical years. Results revealed a consensus regarding course content in areas such as psychiatry, nutrition, and…

Performance objectives, core content, training experiences, and clinical exposure and program evaluations are described for geriatric fellows and house staff members in internal medicine, family practice, neurology, and psychiatry. A modified Delphi study was used. (Author/MLW)

Describes a two-year, multisite, curriculum-development project aimed to increase the pool of professionals trained in geriatric and/or gerontological social work. Methods included providing advanced training in aging, cultural competence, and interdisciplinary practice; developing, implementing, and testing an innovative student curriculum based…

This report records the planning process of curriculum development for the projected undergraduate program of gerontology at the Institute of Gerontology, Federal City College. The goal of the project was to develop curriculum studies in aging for Federal City College undergraduate students, interested community persons, and workers employed in…

A 1984 survey of dental schools was compared with a 1979 survey showing an increase in the teaching of geriatric dentistry. Factors associated with the establishment of a course were that the school was located in a state with a large geriatric population and financial assistance for patients was available. (Author/MLW)

To treat the elderly more competently and to provide clinical training to undergraduates simultaneously, a geriatric dental program was initiated in 1976 at the University of Illinois College of Dentistry. The program's current status and operation are described. (Author/MLW)

In order to meet the pharmaceutical health care needs of the elderly, pharmacy schools must better prepare students. A course developed by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the Health Sciences Consortium to provide pharmacy schools with a model for developing and revising other courses is described. (MLW)

An analysis of policy implementation by the Geriatric Education Centers (GEC) program is presented, using a model developed by Sabatier and Mazmanian (1980). A policy by the Bureau of Health Professions to expand education and training efforts in geriatrics and gerontology led to the creation of four GECs in 1983. By 1989, 38 centers had been…

The project described in this report was designed to: (1) address the lack of adequately trained faculty members needed to introduce geriatrics within colleges of pharmacy, (2) facilitate the use of existing materials within the educational program provided pharmacy students, (3) teach a geriatric pharmacy course twice at each of Texas' three…

A study of recent dental school graduates' attitudes toward the elderly suggests that those attitudes may have little to do with formal dental curriculum elements in geriatric dentistry, and that newly trained professionals' attitudes do not differ greatly from those of professionals trained before geriatric dental curriculum was widespread. (MSE)

The curriculum design, philosophy, and innovation of four programs in geriatric optometry are described: the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and the colleges of Optometry at the State University of New York, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and University of Houston. (MSE)