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VCOM Family Medicine Geriatric Fellowship
Curriculum and schedules are flexible and designed to adapt to the fellow's individual geriatric interests and needs. We will work with the fellow to develop a particular area of interest while preparing the fellow for the Certificate of Added Qualifications for Geriatrics and the clinical practice of geriatric medicine.
Weekly didactic sessions with the geriatric fellow are used to supplement the fellow's experience and provide an opportunity to discuss current literature and controversies in geriatric medicine.
Program Curriculum
The curriculum of the program for the geriatric fellowship training includes both didactic and clinical components, delivered in both longitudinal learning experiences as well as concentrated subspecialty rotations. The total experience will extend over a period of 52 weeks.
Geriatric Core Competencies
The Family Practice Geriatric Fellowship Program is structured to provide the osteopathic geriatric fellow with a properly organized training program that provides progressive responsibility for patient care in a patient centered, culturally competent, collaborative community-based environment utilizing a planned curriculum of structured practical, didactic and clinical experiences under the supervision and mentorship of dedicated faculty. Commitment to Osteopathic Principles, Philosophy and Practices is an integral part of our program as is a patient centered, holistic, culturally competent approach to the practice of medicine.
The specialty of Geriatrics consists of the prevention, diagnosis and management of medical illnesses and injuries related to the geriatric patient. The major goal of the osteopathic geriatrics program is to achieve mastery of the following Core Competencies:
By the end of training, the resident will be able to:
1. Osteopathic Philosophy and Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
- Integrate osteopathic principles into the diagnosis and management of patients.
- Apply osteopathic manipulative therapy to patient management where applicable.
2. Medical Knowledge
- Demonstrate competency in the understanding and application of clinical medicine as it relates to patient care.
- Demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the complex differential diagnoses and treatment options of the Geriatrics patient.
- Understand and apply the foundations of behavioral medicine as it relates to Geriatrics.
- Demonstrate an ability to provide end of life care.
- Identify and address the socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and cultural aspects of illness and their impact on a patient’s clinical presentation and subsequent management.
3. Patient Care
- Demonstrate an ability to rapidly evaluate, initiate and provide appropriate treatment for patients who are critically ill.
- Demonstrate an ability to thoroughly evaluate, initiate treatment and provide appropriate long-term therapeutic recommendations to patients with chronic medical problems in both hospital and ambulatory settings.
- Demonstrate an ability to make appropriate recommendations to promote health maintenance and disease prevention.
- Demonstrate an ability to gather appropriate essential medical information from patient interviews, relevant medical records, examinations and testing.
4. Interpersonal and Communication Skills
- Exercise effective patient interview skills
- Demonstrate appropriate verbal communication with clarity, sensitivity, and respect,
- Create well organized, clear, succinct but thorough and legible medical records.
- Demonstrate an ability to interact with support staff in the hospital and ambulatory settings in a constructive, positive and effective manner.
- Identify methods to communicate with non-English speaking patients, and with those having sensory deficits (verbal, visual, and auditory).
5. Professionalism
- Identify the role of Geriatrics as it relates to other medical disciplines.
- Develop the principles of appropriate ethical conduct and integrity in dealing with patients and the medical community.
- Identify potential areas of conflict of interest inherent in medical practice.
- Demonstrate appropriate, judicious and efficient utilization of medical therapies, procedures, and testing without consideration of personal gain.
- Demonstrate understanding of the implicit position of trust and authority into which patients often place the physician; recognize the ethical requirement to avoid exploitation of this trust either intentionally or unintentionally.
- Complete training in personal health information protection policies, and recognize their application in daily medical practice.
- Recognize the elements of religion, race, ethnicity, or cultural background in individual patients, and address them properly.
- Recognize the need for continuous quality of care in all patient populations, and demonstrate lack of discrimination.
- Provide medical care to those seeking it regardless of age, race, physical handicap or religious affiliation.
6. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
- Develop professional leadership and practice management skills.
- Evaluate the progress of the training of the fellow by using continuous assessment tools.
- Utilize systematic evaluation to include self study and assessment, individual trainee assessment, and outcomes analysis.
- Participate in quality improvement programs and assessment activities in the hospital and ambulatory setting.
- Expose the fellow to research methodology in Geriatrics.
- Identify information technology applicable to the practice of medicine and research. Demonstrate the ability to effectively utilize such technology.
- Develop teaching skills in the Geriatrics fellow.
- Promote the development of commitment to habits of lifelong learning and scholarly pursuit in Geriatrics.
- Prepare the fellow to meet the eligibility requirements of the AOA to take the certification examination administered by the American Osteopathic Academy of Geriatrics.
7. Systems-Based Practice
- Develop in the fellow the skills needed to practice within a system-based health care environment and to use the resources to deliver quality care.
- Understand the national and local health care delivery systems and how they impact on patient care and professional practice.