Geriatrics 

Director:   Maura Brennan, M. D.

Duration:   4 weeks
Students per month:   1

The geriatrics elective provides students with a broad and of intensive exposure to a spectrum of geriatric medical problems.  The students assist with consultations on acutely hospitalized geriatric patients and with comprehensive geriatric evaluations in the outpatient setting.  Students also have the opportunity to participate in nursing home care and the multidisciplinary rounds and functional assessments that occur in subacute and nursing home settings.  Students also help assess patients at our Memory Disorders Clinic, and learn more about the management of skin breakdown and wounds in elderly patients at our Wound Clinic.  There is also a component of community medicine and home care; students go into patients' homes with caseworkers from Elder Protective Services and nurses from the dementia care team at our Visiting Nurse Association.  Experience with outpatient gynecologic evaluations of older women can also be arranged.

Students will learn to use the tools of comprehensive geriatric assessment to evaluate and manage frail elderly patients with multiple medical problems including dementia, depression, incontinence, falls, strokes, constipation, pressure sores, and other geriatric problems.  Faculty supervision provides an excellent opportunity for one-to-one teaching.