“I like being young, active, alive”: first-year medical students’ attitudes to their own aging

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background and Objectives Senior Mentoring programs have been developed to expose students to older adults, increase knowledge of geriatrics, and prepare them to provide patient-centered care. However, even while participating in a senior mentoring program, health professions students demonstrate discriminatory language toward older adults and the aging process. In fact, research suggests ageist practices occur, intentionally or not, among all health professionals and within all healthcare settings. Senior mentoring programs have primarily focused on improving attitudes about older people. The current study evaluated a different approach to anti-ageism by examining medical students’ perceptions of their own aging. Research Design and Methods This qualitative, descriptive study explored medical students’ beliefs about their own aging at the beginning of their medical education using an open-ended prompt immediately before beginning a Senior Mentoring program. Results Thematic analysis identified six themes: Biological, Psychological, Social, Spiritual, Neutrality and Ageism. Responses suggest that students enter medical school with a complex view of aging that goes beyond biological considerations. Discussion and Implications Understanding that students enter medical school with a multi-faceted view of aging provides an opportunity for future work to explore senior mentoring programs as a way to tap into this complex view of aging by changing the way students think not just about older patients but about aging more broadly, and specifically about themselves as aging individuals.