Advancing Geriatrics Education: An Efficient Faculty Development Program for Academic Hospitalists Increases Geriatric Teaching

BACKGROUND: Hospitalists care for an increasing number of older patients. As teachers, they are uniquely positioned to teach geriatric skills to residents. Faculty development programs focused on geriatrics teaching skills are often expensive and time-intensive, and may not enhance trainee learning. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate a train-the-trainer (TTT) model designed to equip hospitalists with knowledge and skills to teach geriatric topics to residents in a time-constrained, resource-limited environment. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: Academic tertiary hospital. INTERVENTION: A 10-hour geriatric curriculum, the Reynolds Program for Advancing Geriatrics Education (PAGE), cotaught by geriatricians and hospitalists at preexisting noon conferences over 1 year that consisted of exportable teaching modules. MEASUREMENTS: Session leaders' and faculty participants' satisfaction, hospitalist geriatrics teaching self-efficacy, residents' self-report of frequency of geriatric teaching received, and frequency of geriatric skill use. RESULTS: The curriculum was highly rated by session leaders and hospitalist faculty. Hospitalists perceived improvement in geriatric teaching skills, indicating (1: "unlikely" to 5: "highly likely") that they are likely to use these teaching tools in the future (M = 4.61, standard deviation [SD] = 0.53). Residents reported both significantly more geriatrics teaching by hospitalists (P < 0.05) and a borderline significant increase in their practice of geriatric clinical skills (P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: A time-efficient geriatric faculty development program for hospitalists suggests improvement in the amount and quality of geriatrics teaching and skill practice among faculty and residents at an academic medical center. Concise faculty development programs within preexisting faculty meetings may be a feasible, successful method to increase geriatric skill development in the hospital setting. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2010;5:541-546. (C) 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.