Medical Student Innovations and Interventions for Delirium and Dementia: Elevating Care Delivery While Enhancing Clinical Reasoning Skills

Abstract

Service-learning and targeted aging research programs position students to become patient and caregiver advocates as they develop their appreciation for the importance of considering contextual factors in care plans, an essential part of the management portion of clinical reasoning (1, 2). Both delirium and dementia are family diseases – they impact patients and their care partners. As structured, our medical care system is not well prepared to meet the needs of these patients and their families. By supporting and studying these conditions, students can gain appreciation of how contextual factors – from financial resources to caregiver burnout to medical system limitations – are essential to consider when developing care plans, rather than as an afterthought to evidenced-based interventions (3). Additionally, students benefit from early exposure to older adults, as gaining comfort and competency working with older adults early in training leads to physicians who are better prepared to care for our aging population (4). This session will share how students at our institution are supporting patients with delirium and dementia and their caregivers through three projects: delirium identification research, delirium prevention and management systems change, and dementia care service-learning. They will share the impact this has had on their understanding of the complexity of these conditions and the factors surrounding them, highlighting how we can best teach nuanced clinical reasoning skills.