There are several gerontology and geriatrics educational programs available
to students and trainees through the Buehler Center and Northwestern University.
Medical Student Summer Program in Geriatrics
The Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society offers a weekly program geared at promoting knowledge and research in geriatrics and gerontology for students during the early years of their medical education. Students engage in active research with clinicians and educators in a range of geriatric settings. The program also offers the opportunity for individual research projects, a series of seminars on core issues in geriatrics, a series of visits to sites where older people receive care, a journal club, and a reading group.
Each summer, 10-14 students engage in clinical and laboratory research projects with faculty preceptors. Topics of some recent projects were: relieving symptoms of cancer: innovative use of art therapy; clinical characteristics and reporting of zoledronic acid associated nephrotoxicity; adverse medical events and emergency department utilization among the elderly. One student produced a video entitled Witnessing Death: A Grandson's Reflections. The Buehler Center's summer student program has received support from the Retirement Research Foundation and the David W. E. Smith, MD, Endowed Fund for Gerontology Research.
The full-time summer program is open to all first-year students at the Feinberg School of Medicine and offers a stipend. To apply, please complete the Feinberg School of Medicine Medical Student Summer Research Program application form. For further information, please contact Joshua M. Hauser, MD.
The Geriatrics Fellowship Program
The Division of Geriatrics accepts one to two applicants each academic year for fellowship training in geriatrics. Training sites include Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Warren Barr Pavilion Subacute Nursing Facility, and the Methodist Home. Trainees are mentored by the geriatrics faculty in the complexity of the health needs of older individuals and learn how to treat patients throughout the continuum of care. As their education progresses, the fellows are able to share their knowledge of geriatric concerns with other medical traineess.
Ten Tips for Doctors Who Care for Older People
The residents of Westminster Place at Presbyterian Homes recently compiled some advice for visiting Northwestern University medical students about "What Doctors Should Know About Older Patients."
[
Click here to download - pdf]
Electronic Books
Two excellent geriatrics books are available online through Northwestern
University's Galter Health Sciences Library.
Geriatrics
Resource Guide / Northwestern University
Geriatric
Medicine / Christine K. Cassel et al., eds. (available only on the NU network)
The Fellowship Training Program in Geriatric Psychiatry
The
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine offers a one-year, ACGME accredited fellowship program in geriatric psychiatry. The program includes experience in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric settings as well as experience varied nonpsychiatric setting with an older adult population. For more information, please contact
Sandra Swantek, MD.
Institute for Healthcare Studies
The mission of the Institute for Healthcare Studies at the Feinberg School of Medicine is to promote, coordinate, and originate multidisciplinary research and education in order to improve safety, equity, quality, and policy in health care. More information about the post-doctoral fellowship program in health services research and on the master's and certificate programs in healthcare quality and patient safety can be found at the
Institute for Healthcare Studies website.
School of Education and Social Policy
The
Human Development and Social Policy (HDSP) Program, founded in 1981 under the leadership of Dr. Bernice Neugarten, prepares students to engage in research that will broaden the our understanding and help to alleviate the problems that pose the greatest challenges to society. It is this kind of research that will shape future decisions about policies, programs, and interventions.
