Virginia Commonwealth University developed an enhanced medical student geriattic curriculum that includes required home visits and nursing home visits for second year students (180 per year), an annual Forum on Aging for all first and second year students, and small group exercises. We added 30 hours of basic science material to pre-clinical…

In response to concerns about continuity of care, nurse practitioners and faculty members from medicine, pharmacy, and nursing developed an interdisciplinary curriculum for clinical experience in a nursing home, an educational and medical experience significantly different from those in hospital or ambulatory settings. (MSE)

A format was devised for nursing home rounds that provides for discussion among staff members and specialists and is aimed at teaching and the resolution of specific patient-care and administrative issues. Many complex medical problems were handled without transferring the patients to an acute-care facility. (Author/MLW)

Evidence is presented to support the development of the nursing home as a required clinical educational site. Analogies and differences between the nursing home and the hospital in medical education are explored as a means of understanding the potential and limits of the nursing home's role in medical education. (Author/MLW)