Grow your skills related to age-friendly, patient-centered, team-based healthcare of older adults.
The Age-Friendly Healthcare: Interprofessional Training Program is offered through the HRSA-funded Project ECHO-Geriatrics, a monthly interprofessional telementoring/consultation program focused on care of older adults in primary care.
The program will be offered to health sciences students across UW campuses between October 2023 and May 2024, and participants will be asked to participate in a minimum of three interprofessional telehealth case discussions. Each one-hour session consists of a mini-didactic focused on primary care of older adults followed by a case discussion of 1-2 patients presented by a regional clinician and insights shared by an interprofessional healthcare panel (geriatric medicine, social work, nursing, geriatric psychiatry, pharmacy, and Area Agency on Aging staff) and participants. Discussions focus on high quality interprofessional care of older adults largely based on the four Ms of age-friendly care (what matters, mobility, mentation, and medications). Patient case discussions are de-identified to protect patient confidentiality.
Project ECHO-Geriatrics, an educational activity of the Northwest Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Center is based on the well-established ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) model. Since 2016, over 1000 regionally based clinicians and trainees have received training using this approach. Project ECHO-Geriatrics is now expanding to provide health professions students an opportunity to observe, learn from, and contribute to high quality interprofessional care for older adults. This new opportunity is open to students from across the health professions, including medicine, nursing, social work, public health, pharmacy, dentistry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, speech and language pathology, and nutrition/dietetics.
The approximate time commitment is 7 hours between October 2023 and May 2024. Students will register for their choice of three of the eight Project ECHO sessions available (1 hour each on Zoom, offered monthly). Each session will be followed by a 30-minute debrief/discussion specifically for health professions students (also on Zoom). The program will kick off with a brief online orientation/team building session, and all students will be asked to fill out surveys at course completion. Below are dates/times for six available ECHO sessions.
Target Audience:
This program is designed for future healthcare professionals who:
- have clinical training experience with direct patient interaction
- have an interest in the principles of high quality, interprofessional primary care for older adults
- want experience discussing and problem solving real-world primary care of older adults
- want to learn more about a team-based approach to care of older adults
Dates 2023-24
Participants are asked to attend three Zoom sessions selected from the following dates, all held on Fridays, 12:30-2:00PM
- October 20, 2023
- November 17, 2023
- December 15, 2023
- January 19, 2024
- February 16, 2024
- March 15, 2024
- April 19, 2024
- May 17, 2024
Registration will remain open until the program is filled.
Questions? Contact Kate Bennett, MD at bennett4@uw.edu, Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington.
