The Senior Mentor Program at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine: an innovative geriatric longitudinal curriculum.

This paper describes development, implementation, and evaluation strategies of a longitudinal geriatric curriculum, the Senior Mentor Program (SMP). The rationale for exposing undergraduate medical students to healthy, community-dwelling older adults is to use the relationship and activities as vehicles for improving knowledge of aging and providing students experience with aging as a stage and process. The University of South Carolina School of Medicine's major aim in geriatrics is to prepare students to become skilled physicians in care of older adults.

Preparing medical students to care for older adults: the impact of a Senior Mentor Program.

Purpose: To provide alternative training experiences for medical students to improve the competencies needed to provide care for older adults.

Method: Part of a comprehensive approach to integrating geriatric content at the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine, the Senior Mentor Program (SMP) was launched in 2000. The SMP links pairs of students with older community volunteers in the spring of the first year.

From Yoda to Sackett: the future of psychiatry medical student education.

Objective: The authors discuss approaches to curricular goals, methods, and assessments in the education of medical students in psychiatry.

Methods: Using current educational principles and opinions on curricular reform in medical student education, an outline for a core curriculum and an individualized approach to medical student education were developed.

Results: A curricular outline addressing both content and organization was developed for all students as well as those specifically entering clinical psychiatry, neuroscience research, and primary care.