Abstract
Introduction
Improving ageing education for health professionals requires meaningful involvement of those with lived experience. Giving older adults a voice in curriculum design and delivery helps shape education to be inclusive, authentic, and relevant, preparing students for person-centred care.
Methods
We hosted a community engagement outreach workshop, bringing together multidisciplinary health professions students (n=7: medicine; pharmacy) and educators (n=26), with older members of the public (n=8) and other key stakeholders in older peoples’ care (n=12: care home staff; charity representatives; researchers). The workshop began using a creative focus to stimulate reflection, followed by mixed small group discussions exploring participants’ lived experiences of ageing, caring for older people, and/or ageing education. Groups identified opportunities for innovation where there was mismatch between current teaching and lived experience of ageing, with particular focus on opportunities that would involve older people, multiple professions, and community settings. Discussion points were noted and have been grouped into broad themes.
Results
Participants emphasised the value of early and repeated engagement with community-dwelling older people to build empathy and skills beyond clinical settings. The arts were identified as a powerful means to deepen understanding and challenge ageism. Involving older adults as co-educators emerged as essential for humanising ageing education. Additionally, interprofessional education was recognized as crucial to preparing students to work effectively within multidisciplinary teams.
Conclusions
Our workshop identified practical strategies to transform undergraduate ageing education by connecting multidisciplinary students with older people in the community and those involved in the care of older people, giving them a meaningful voice in curriculum design and delivery. Incorporating these diverse insights will help us to innovate geriatric medicine teaching in a manner that meaningfully prepares students to care for our ageing population.
Comments
Engaging the Geriatric Population
Great idea to involve the geriatric population. This approach can inspire the medical workforce to better understand their needs, address existing problems, and develop innovative solutions to improve their quality of life.
Really valuable to have had…
Really valuable to have had the input of older adults in curriculum design. In a similar vein, it would be useful for undergraduates (and graduates!) to have a patient/carer-centred feedback sessions with older patients to discuss patients' own perceptions of desirable and undesirable features in their interactions with healthcare workers.