CHAMP: A Real Winner at Teaching Geriatrics
The elderly constitute the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. According to one estimate, nearly one in five Americans will be 65 years old or older by 2050.1 Geriatric medicine has produced a plethora of information regarding older patients’ special needs, but when it comes to teaching medical students and residents, most curricular materials focus on the care and management of older outpatients, rather than inpatients. In an effort to fill this gap, faculty at the University of Chicago School of Medicine developed the Curriculum for the Hospitalized Aging Medical Patient (CHAMP). It is designed to help instructors teach the management of elderly inpatients. In this month’s issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine, lead author Paula Podrazik, MD, associate professor in the section of geriatrics, department of medicine, University of Chicago, and her co-authors explain CHAMP as it was perceived by a targeted group of faculty learners.
—Paula Podrazik, MD, associate professor in the section of geriatrics, department of medicine, University of Chicago
CHAMP incorporates knowledge gleaned from first-hand experience and a review of the literature and existing models of care. “Our goal was to improve patient care and systems of hospital care through education by faculty development,” Dr. Podrazik tells The Hospitalist. The CHAMP program emphasizes issues of particular importance in geriatric hospital medicine, including frailty, avoiding hazards of hospitalization, palliation, and care transitions.
For example, “hospitalists need to know certain aspects of dementia care, such as how to recognize it and screen for it,” she explains. “They have to determine whether a particular patient is able to make decisions, and they have to understand what it is about this condition that puts these patients at higher risk in the hospital.” Another example includes medication review and “communicating medication changes when transitioning the patient to a skilled nursing facility, home, or a rehabilitation center.”
Dr. Podrazik and her colleagues hope CHAMP might entice more medical students and residents to consider entering geriatric medicine. “Half of the [hospital] beds in the U.S. are filled with patients who are at least 65 years old. Many students and residents base their career decisions on what they see during their hospital rotation, so this was a great opportunity for us, as geriatricians, to influence that decision.”
The program consists of learning modules presented in 12, four-hour sessions. The modules address four basic themes:
- Identification of the frail or vulnerable elderly patient;
- Recognition and avoidance of hospitalization hazards, such as falls and dementia;
- Palliative care and end-of-life issues; and
- Improving transitions of care.
Each module has specific learning objectives and an evaluation process based on the standard precepts of curriculum design. The first part of each session covers topics on geriatric inpatient medicine, such as high-risk medications, medication reconciliation, restraint use, care transitions, and other aspects of mandates from The Joint Commission, which have particular relevance to the care of elderly people. Faculty participants listen to 30- to 90-minute lectures on each topic, with an emphasis on applying the content during bedside teaching rounds.
Modules presented in the second half of the session cover teaching techniques, such as the Stanford Faculty Development Program for Medical Teachers, which uses case scenarios and practice sessions to polish participants’ teaching skills. Another component specifically developed for CHAMP is a mini-course called “Teaching on Today’s Wards.” It is designed to help non-geriatric faculty put more geriatrics content in their bedside rounds, and to improve bedside teaching techniques in the inpatient wards.
