Fellowship-trained physicians who let their geriatric medicine certification lapse: A national survey.

Background: Only 62.6% of fellowship-trained and American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)-certified geriatricians maintain their specialty certification in geriatric medicine, the lowest rate among all internal medicine subspecialties and the only subspecialty in which physicians maintain their internal medicine certification at higher rates than their specialty certification. This study aims to better understand underlying issues related to the low rate of maintaining geriatric medicine certification in order to inform geriatric workforce development strategies.

Retooling the Health Care Workforce for an Aging America: A Current Perspective.

A 2008 Institute of Medicine (IoM) report outlined a vision for health care and a workforce capable of addressing health and extended care needs of our aging population. It highlighted dramatic shortages necessitating bold action and outlined recommendations aimed at building a sizable and qualified workforce. This study updates report findings and progress made on its recommendations.

Pursuing Age-Friendly University (AFU) principles at a major university: Lessons in grassroots organizing.

Population aging presents challenges and opportunities that Michigan State University (MSU) is now taking on in a strategic way, but it has been a long road to reach a major milestone of establishing a program called AgeAlive. AgeAlive builds on fifty years of advocacy for coordinated aging-related programming and a more current grassroots effort that has led to a commitment to building an aging network connecting research, education, and outreach efforts based on Age-Friendly University principles. This case study describes AgeAlive's path from inception to a recognized program with a clear vision and strategic plan.

Improving Patient Experiences and Outcomes Through Personal Care Aide Training.

Introduction: The rapidly aging US population is resulting in major challenges including delivering quality care at lower costs in the face of a critical health-care workforce shortage. The movement toward home care has dramatically increased the need for qualified, paid personal care aides (PCAs). Adequate PCA training that focuses on skills for person-centered, at home support is an imperative.

A National Survey on the Effect of the Geriatric Academic Career Award in Advancing Academic Geriatric Medicine.

A workforce that understands principles of geriatric medicine is critical to addressing the care needs of the growing elderly population. This will be impossible without a substantial increase in academicians engaged in education and aging research. Limited support of early-career clinician-educators is a major barrier to attaining this goal.

Direct Care Workforce Training: Internet Accessibility and Acceptance.

Evidence exists that web-based learning for health care professionals can improve topic-specific knowledge, increase access to training, and lower training costs. However, limited information exists on the value of online education for improving hands-on skills as part of personal care aide (PCA) training. New PCA training programs are emerging that are fully online or hybrid models that blend online with in-person instruction.

Transformative Theatre: A Promising Educational Tool for Improving Health Encounters With LGBT Older Adults.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) older adults are often unaware or fearful of aging services that contribute to greater vulnerability, isolation, and risk when services are needed. In addition, they may perceive or experience bias in health care encounters. Providers may not recognize their own biases or their impact on such encounters.

Do Canes or Walkers Make Any Difference? NonUse and Fall Injuries.

Purpose Of The Study: Examine patterns of cane and walker use as related to falls and fall injuries.

Hypotheses: Among people who fall at home, most do not have an assistive device with them when they fall. Nonusers who fall sustain more severe injuries.

Considerations for using the 'brown bag' strategy to reconcile medications during routine outpatient office visits.

Background: Among medication reconciliation studies, varying methods are used to determine which medications patients are actually taking. One recommended approach is to ask patients to "brown bag" their medications for routine office visits.

Aims: To determine if 'brown bag' practices performed during routine office visits improve the accuracy of provider-documented medication lists.

How are the experiences and needs of families of individuals with mental illness reflected in medical education guidelines?

Objective: This descriptive study explored the extent that medical education curriculum guidelines contained content about the experiences and needs of family members of people with serious mental illness.

Methods: Key family-focused-literature themes about the experiences and needs of families of individuals with mental illness were drawn from a review of over 6,000 sources in the mental health practice literature that were identified within a systematic search and thematic development process. The study identified the extent and nature of family-focused key literature themes as reflected in medical education curriculum guidelines for psychiatry and primary care practice specialties of family practice, internal medicine, and pediatrics.

An administrator's perspective on mental health in assisted living.

Administrators of 94 assisted living facilities in Michigan completed a 19-item survey about the extent of mental health problems of residents and how such problems were addressed. In 45 facilities more than half of the residents were reported to be cognitively impaired. The two most common problems were dementia and depression.