Geriatric Center Programs

Student & Resident Training at Meharry

The following MCGEC educational opportunities are offered for MMC students and residents:

Ethnogeriatrics series—classes provided to MS-I students as an introductory exposure to cultural competency and serving diverse populations

Growth, Development and Aging—a three-credit course for MS-II students with lectures and small group discussions

Dental, Psychiatry, Neurology and Family Medicine—lectures, lunch & learn seminars, and clinical rotations provide students with more in-depth training in caring for older adults

Geriatric Student Forum—open to all students, GSF provides unique geriatric training opportunities, and serves as the voice of students interested in geriatrics

Mentored research projects

Annual Geriatric Update and Gerontology Continuing Education series

Geriatric Student Forum
The Geriatric Student Forum is a special interest group for students that provides information about how to effectively diagnose, treat, and manage elderly patients. It also serves as the voice of Meharry students who are interested in Geriatrics. Through lunchtime lectures and other events, students learn about important topics like inter-professional teams, end-of-life care, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, and dental care for the elderly. The GSF also provides information to students about summer research opportunities and scholarships, internships & conferences.

For more information, please contact Dr. Ruth Garrett at 615.327.6947 or rgarrett@mmc.edu.

Delirium EBP Project

Vanderbilt is leading our Delirium Evidence Based Practice (EBP) project after designing and piloting an intervention on the Acute Care of the Elderly (ACE) unit. As part of the ACE unit study, VU faculty created a nursing delirium training module, a physician delirium order set (WizOrder) and an informatics tool incorporating CAM screenings by nurses with scores entered into the EMR. An electronic alert is programmed into the EMR so that the medical team knows a patient has been identified as delirious per a positive nursing CAM assessment. This alert offers the physician the opportunity to enter the Geriatric Delirium Order set to choose laboratory tests, pharmacologic treatments, and non-pharmacologic treatments.

For the MCGEC project, Dr. Laurence Solberg is leading a team to train MDs, RNs, social workers and nutritionists on a surgical wing at Vanderbilt Medical Center. The educational intervention for the nurses is led by Nurse Champions from the ACE unit, and incorporates nursing documentation of delirium risk factors in the EMR. Dr. Solberg is training surgery and urology residents on the unit. In addition to resident physicians and nurses, several case managers (social workers) and nutritionists are being trained. The ultimate goal is to improve detection and evidence based treatment of delirium in older hospitalized patients.

For more information, please contact Dr. Laurence Solberg at 615.936.4073 or Laurence.m.solberg@vanderbilt.edu.

Inter-Professional Team Training

Inter-professional team training is a primary focus of Geriatric Education Centers. To ensure that health professional students develop skills for working in inter-professional (IP) teams, MCGEC hosts an annual IP team geriatric case training. Over one hundred and fifty medical, nursing (NP), pharmacy, nutrition and social work students and faculty from six local colleges and universities participate in the event. Students are divided into inter-disciplinary teams to analyze a geriatric case and develop an intervention plan. Faculty experts are available to consult with teams, and "floating" nurse practitioners observe team dynamics and determine 2 groups to present their plan to conference attendees. The program concludes with feedback & reflections from an inter-disciplinary expert panel.

For more information, please contact Mary Ann Ruley at 615.327.6947 or via email at mruley@mmc.edu.