Overview
With a limited number of specialist physicians, and few, if any geriatricians practicing in our regions, we offered the Geriatric Education for Rural Health Professionals program to rural health care providers to help them provide better support to their geriatric patients.
Through this program, we offered a menu of nationally-acclaimed community-based geriatric care training programs that rural health care providers, including physicians, physician assistants, nurses and nurse practitioners, could choose to attend at no cost to them.
These included:
Geriatric Scholar Certificate Program
This five-day program provided professional training in interdisciplinary geriatrics and gerontology with an emphasis on rural geriatric care.
Sponsored by: SUNY Upstate Medical University; the Consortium of Education Centers; Columbia University Morris W. Stroud III Center for Study of Quality of Life; the Research Foundation of SUNY – Center of Aging Research, Education and Services; and the New York State Office of Mental Health.
Intensive Board Review Course in Geriatric and Palliative Medicine
This program provided an intensive clinical review of geriatric and palliative medicine and prepares clinicians for board exams in geriatrics.
Presented by: The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and the Lillian & Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
Geriatric Education for Rural Providers
This hybrid model program included in-person educational conferences as well as online learning modules which were held over a six-month period. Conferences were held in October 2013, May 2014 and November 2014. A final conference was held in May 2015.
Offered by: University of Rochester Medical Center and the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center, this program was a part of the larger Geriatric Workforce Initiative. Through a series of programs, this initiative aimed to increase recruitment, retention and competence among physicians, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants, home health aides and other health care related professionals who serve vulnerable older adults and their families.
Results
Since September 2013, more than 75 rural providers have participated in the Geriatric Education for Rural Health Providers program.
