The Assignment...

In Medical Education, everything that we assign the residents is expected to meet some sort of objective and attain a goal. Despite the fact that this blog will not likely meet any pre-prescribed goals or objectives, it will serve a purpose. Its purpose is multifactorial (Surprise, surprise. After all, this is Geriatrics.).

1.      Older adults require more than just care of their medical problems. They are whole people, with social lives and social issues, physical norms and physical illnesses, goals to get better and goals to die in peace. To recognize the complexity of care of the older adult is to appreciate the older adult himself/herself. Write about it.

2.      Internal Medicine residency primarily takes place in the hospital and clinic. Geriatrics, however, takes a resident to skilled nursing, long term care, and yes, even home visits. Residents see the other side of the transition of care, the side to which they often send people and sometimes wonder why the transition failed. This is the chance to recognize ways to improve as they go forward and teach other people not make the same mistakes. Write about it.

3.      Medicine is an art. We go to work, take care of diseases, and go home (to read about more medicine). We forget the art. This is the chance to express yourself. Write about it.

The Assignment: Write about it: your experiences, your surprises, your feelings, your advice, whatever you want. It must relate to the rotation in some way. And it must not contain any PHI. Send it to me by Friday on week 3 of the block for review and posting. (Anyone with an appropriate post, even from outside the residency may post with my approval.)