Geriatric Rotation for Students

WELCOME & ROTATION INTRODUCTION

With the rise in population of older adults age 65+, all care providers will be expected to be knowledgeable in geriatric care. The Geriatrics Rotation serves to provide supervised, high-quality opportunities for health professions students to apply and transform the knowledge and basic clinical skills that they have acquired into clinical competence in the care of older adults, while functioning as learning members of interprofessional health care teams.

By the end of the rotation, students will increase competencies in the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework by participating in tasks and resources specific to each objective: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility. Below you will find the tasks and resources that will be completed in order to have a successful rotation experience over the next 4-weeks.

SYLLABUS & ORIENTATION

• Review the HSC Geriatrics Rotation Syllabus for Students.
• Watch the NextGen Training Video.
• Read the Orientation email with specific directions/instructions for your rotation. (If you did not receive an orientation email with a clinic rotation schedule by the Thursday before your rotation, please contact Ashley.Gomez@unthsc.edu.)

During the 4-week rotation, trainees will be exposed to a variety of geriatric care experiences including ambulatory practice, home visits, geriatric psychiatry, and long-term care settings. Students will gain knowledge through self-study, case reviews, didactic opportunities, and hands on experience in ambulatory, home, and long-term care settings. Students will examine their own attitudes toward aging, disability, and death; they are encouraged to provide empathy towards older adults and their caregivers and to appreciate the need for functional status assessments of individual patients rather than focusing on diseases alone.

CLINICAL ACTIVITIES

You will receive an orientation email with a clinical schedule, preceptor contact info, and additional information.  If you have not received your schedule and/or preceptor information by the Thursday before your rotation, please email Ashley.Gomez@unthsc.edu.  

Here are basic instructions regarding your clinical activities. For additional instructions and information, please refer to the Syllabus.

Clinic – Clinic starts at 8am or at 1pm. Please arrive on time and please participate in the 8:10 am huddle if you are available. On the first day of the rotation, please ensure that you have access to NextGen and call the EMR team (emr@unthsc.edu or 817-735-0665) if you do not. You should have access prior to your first clinic session.  

Clinic Expectations 

• • Professional attire or scrubs. 
  • Badge required; white coat optional.
  • Surgical face mask to be worn in the building and additional PPE will be provided as applicable. 
  • Please self-monitor for COVID-symptoms and do not come if you have a fever or are sick. 
  • Please use the flag system outside of the exam rooms. 
  • Please finish your charting for the day before you leave for the day.  To e-sign your note, you click on “preceptor” and task your note to your preceptor. 

LTC (Long Term Care) – As a group, we visit 6 different long-term care facilities in Fort Worth.  Please contact your preceptor by text or email the day before you are scheduled with them to receive instruction on where and when to meet them.  Orientation to the LTC facility will be provided onsite.  [Please be prepared to show your COVID-19 vaccination card if requested] 

DIDACTIC ACTIVITIES

Students are expected to participate in all available live and online didactic activities.

LIVE Didactic Opportunities

JPS Geriatric and Palliative Fellowship Program Monthly Didactic session and Grand Rounds. On the 2nd Monday of each calendar month from August to April there is a didactic session held by JPS Fellows for the Geriatric Elective students, which includes Journal Club and Board Review.  Session time is 9:30 am to 11:30 am. At the present time, this is hybrid (Zoom and in-person). Students will receive an email with the session information from JPS Coordinator Linda Ortega (LOrtega@jpshealth.org).

JPS Geriatric Fellowship Program Friday Study Group. Most Fridays from 1:00-2:30 pm, there is a session covering geriatric content with the Geriatric Fellowship faculty and Geriatric Fellow.  All students are to attend on Zoom as available and as their schedule allows.  Students will receive an email with the session information from JPS Coordinator Linda Ortega (LOrtega@jpshealth.org).

JPS Geriatric Grand Rounds.   These occur on the 2nd Monday of the calendar month from 12:00 noon-1:00 pm. Linda Ortega (LOrtega@jpshealth.org) will provide the zoom link to students via email.

Geriatric ECHO Sessions.  These Zoom sessions occur at different times throughout the year, usually from 12:00-1:00 pm.  When the Geriatrics ECHO is in session, all students are required to attend.  Scheduled by the Center for Older Adults ECHO team. Please go to https://www.unthsc.edu/ECHO for more information and to register.

Online Self-Guided Study

Students are to complete all available online learning modules during any down time/study time during their rotation. 

• • Online Learning Modules found unthsc.edu/GeriCE. Create an account to access the content.
  • Telehealth 101 for Health Professionals & Trainees. Click here to watch the video. 

RESOURCES 

You may also access the following materials at library.hsc.unt.edu.

• Geriatrics at Your Fingertips® 2020 

CONTACT 

Should you have any questions regarding the materials or access to content, please contact  Jessica Arroyo at 817-735-5694 or Jessica.Arroyo@unthsc.edu.