Abstract
Abstract Background Undergraduate exposure to geriatric medicine is essential to equip future physicians with knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide care to older persons. Since 2009, all UCD final year medical students complete a 6-week core community medicine module run by geriatric medicine and general practice. In recent years we have further aligned our curriculum with the 2014 European undergraduate curriculum in Geriatric Medicine and have refined a simulated Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) workshop with includes assessment of mood, cognition, ADLs and medications. We have added an interactive session on frailty. Methods A cross-sectional prospective study of students participating in a dedicated frailty/CGA teaching session was performed. Students were invited to complete an electronic survey using PollEV software at the beginning and end of the teaching session. Questions were a mixture of multiple-choice and open-ended. Results Of a potential 135 students, we received responses from 70. The data was anonymised at point of entry, and each question was recorded as an individual datapoint; exact numbers of students who answered are not possible. Quantitative results on inevitability of frailty went from 58% of students recognising that frailty is not an inevitable result of ageing; to 100%. Qualitative results showed that 29% of students did not know what frailty was to 92% demonstrating an understanding of vulnerability and poor reserve associated with frailty. With regards to CGA, 22% of students were unclear on what was involved with another 52% choosing a single modality. Following dedicated teaching, this improved to 82% showing their understanding of the interdisciplinary approach to CGA. Conclusion Frailty is a common, complex condition which all future clinicians will encounter. Recognition of frailty and implementation of a management plan is part of Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment. We have shown that a dedicated teaching session improves medical students understanding of this important topic.
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