The Medical College of Wisconsin Senior Mentor Program: experience of a lifetime.

The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) Senior Mentor Program (SMP) has been offered to a small group of first and second year medical students as a course alternative to the traditional physician mentor program. The program links students with healthy older adult mentors and includes mentor/student visits, didactic sessions, written assignments, and shadowing experiences. The goals of the course are to increase positive attitudes about aging and geriatrics and to teach basic assessment and interviewing skills in geriatric content areas.