Level of Comfort in Evaluating Older Patients Amongst Medical Students and Emergency Medicine Residents

Abstract

dissemination methods of the RAMS listserv and Twitter still do not include all EM residents and interested medical students, so some part of the population was likely missed. In addition, this survey was announced at the AGEM annual meeting, as part of SAEM, so there is likely some selectivity bias in recruiting trainees who have already expressed an interest in GEM. This may explain the number of trainees who responded positively to questions regarding interest and importance of GEM and a career in GEM, the lower numbers for those who said that they are not interested in GEM. This study also focused only on emergency medicine residents and medical students who self-identified as interested in EM, so the results are less generalizable to the general population of medical trainees not interested in EM. This survey examined self-reported comfort with core geriatric competencies, rather than objective knowledge and skills, which is a direction for future research. This study is an initial step toward exploring the level of comfort EM residents and medical students interested in EM have in evaluating and managing older patients, as measured with the geriatric core competencies, as well as exploring trainees’ exposure to GEM. More work is needed in this area to understand trainee comfort with the geriatric core competencies and working with this complex population. Greater geriatrics exposure in preclinical and clinical training can increase competency and interest, which may be best accomplished earlier in medical training. EM trainees are aware of the need for and importance of additional GEM education, and educators should find ways to teach trainees creatively and engagingly about caring for older patients. Increasing GEM exposure and training will be important in creating a future EM physician workforce that is comfortable in the required competencies for caring for this complex and important patient population.