School of Medicine Healthy Ager Interview Project
Problem & Background
The American Geriatrics Society recommends that the undergraduate medical curriculum “provide the foundation for competent, compassionate care of older patients.” Students should:
- be aware of myths and stereotypes related to older people, recognize that ageism can impair effective care of elderly patients
- recognize the heterogeneity of older persons
- appreciate the vitality of healthy aging
But how to encourage students to understand healthy aging, particularly when the medical curriculum stresses disease?
This project pairs medical students with community-dwelling, healthy agers to allow older persons to share their
perspectives on aging, generativity, and interacting with
physicians. It was originally piloted in 2001 with support
from the AAMC/John A. Hartford Foundation. It has been
reinstated in 2006 with support by the D.W. Reynolds Foundation.
Innovation
Students in a first-year course were grouped into teams and matched with an elderly community member. A letter to interviewees explained the project and listed possible questions; a copy of an IRB-approved consent form was also included.
Click here to view student guidelines.
A faculty member demonstrated effective interaction and dialogue with an elderly person, and contrasted this interview with a medical history.
Click here to view the Life History interview questions.
Suggested topics:
- Early childhood & schooling
- Education, or military service
- Marriage and building a family and career
- Building a satisfying life after 60
- Any life changes that would be made in hindsight
- Advice for young people, especially young doctors
Evaluation
Students were responsible for setting up the interview. Afterward, they prepared a short paper describing their experience and met with facilitators to discuss and evaluate it.
We developed three evaluation instruments:
- Student evaluation of the experience: Download Student Evaluation.
- Healthy ager (interviewee) evaluation of the experience: Download Healthy Ager Evaluation.
- Student paper evaluation: Download Student Paper Evaluation.
Key Findings
from 2001
- More than 45% of students had an explicit positive attitude change about aging
- Among the characteristics that students most often linked with healthy aging: positive attitude, strong work ethic, social interactions
- Student papers consistently reflect the healthy agers' generativity and & ego integrity
Implications for Medical Education
- A community-based interview experience with Healthy Agers breaks students' stereotypes and improves their attitudes about aging
- The experience broadens students' range of contact with successful aging
Implications for Patient Education
- Early exposure to healthy aging teaches students to value communication and listening skills
- Healthy Agers' advice to students emphasizes effective physician/patient interaction