Geriatric education for medical students in the United States and its implications to China

Abstract

Objective To summarize requirements and practice in American geriatric medical education for medical students and discuss its implications to China. Methods Use document analysis method. Summarize and analyze retrieved relevant publications and on-line resources. Results The American Geriatrics Society and relevant scholars developed core competencies and minimum required geriatric medical abilities for medical graduates, respectively. Most medical schools had well-outlined objectives in geriatric medical education, and mainly relied on integrated courses for the teaching of geriatric medicine, and used both traditional and new pedagogies to ensure geriatric medical education was included in the whole process of education for medical students. Conclusions The United States attaches importance to geriatric medical education for medical students. Active exploration and practice is conducted in developing competency standard and ability requirement, curriculum, education model and pedagogy. The importance and urgency of enhancing geriatric medical education for all undergraduate medical students should be well realized in China. Geriatric medical education criteria for medical undergraduate should be issued in order to promote and standardize geriatric medical education. Geriatric educational model and pedagogy also should be innovated based on international experiences. Geriatric medical knowledge should be integrated into relevant medical courses in order to enhance the teaching of the knowledge in the whole process of undergraduate medical education. Key words: Geriatric medical education; Medical major; Medical student; The United States; Implication