Allowing medical students to meet and care for elderly patients in outpatient clinics as well as in the traditional settings helps students to form a more realistic and positive image of treating older people. Students become aware of the challenges involved in properly managing a variety of chronic illnesses to maintain the highest degree of health and independence. This is an important and frequently under emphasized part of geriatric medical education. A variety of clinical training sites are necessary to expose students to these aspects of caring for elderly patients. A visit to a nursing home can also be a valuable and positive learning experience.
Many students have negative images of nursing homes and their residents.
Well planned nursing home rounds with a geriatrician can change these images. Many are in nursing homes because they lack family or other means of assistance that would enable them to live at home. A visit to a nursing home can make students aware of the heterogeneity of nursing home residents and the different types of care they require. Clinical experiences in a variety of settings also expose students to caring clinicians. This is extremely important since geriatrics involves the attitudes of practitioners toward the elderly.