A national survey of family medicine residency education in geriatric medicine: comparing findings in 2004 to 2001.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We compared findings from this 2004 survey with our 2001 survey to determine progress in family medicine residency programs' efforts to better train residents to care for America's aging population. METHODS: A survey was mailed and made available on-line to all 470 family medicine residency directors in the United States. RESULTS: The response rate was 71%. Ninety-six percent of family medicine residencies have a required geriatrics curriculum, compared to 92% in 2001. There was a significant increase in the number of required lecture hours in geriatrics in 2004 as compared to 2001. Since 2001, the median number of MD geriatrics faculty per program has nearly doubled from .5 full-time equivalent (FTE) to .9 FTE. Conflicting time demands with other curricula was ranked as the most significant barrier to geriatrics education in both 2004 and 2001. However, in 2001, the attitude of residents was listed as a significant barrier by 32.1% of the program directors as compared to just 3.6% in 2004. CONCLUSIONS: Family medicine educators are continuing to improve the training of residents to provide state-of-the-art care for the aging population. Faculty must take advantage of this period of experimentation in residency education to identify best practices for geriatrics education.