Development of Rural Interdisciplinary Geriatrics Teams

Abstract

The interdisciplinary team approach is a hallmark of geriatric care. However, the development and provision of interdisciplinary health care services to rural elderly populations remain a challenge. Contributing to this situation is the fact that traditional training programs for health professions students rarely incorporate clinical rotations that provide actual experience with an interdisciplinary health care team. Moreover, student experiences in rural geriatrics settings also are lacking. This article describes a project to develop interdisciplinary geriatrics teams and student training sites in rural Appalachian primary care settings. Discussion includes development and composition of the geriatric teams, procedures used in patient assessment, characteristics of the patient populations, student participation, and challenges and successes encountered in the implementation process.

Key Words:

• Rural
• interdisciplinary
• geriatrics
• Appalachia
• health care
• teams
• health professions curriculum