Infusing an Optimal Aging Paradigm Into an Entry-Level Geriatrics Course

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Background and Purpose. Health care students, including physical therapist students, do not often make career choices that involve working with older adults. They may possess negative perceptions and attitudes that adversely affect the quality of care and their career choices. Optimal aging is an optimistic, positive paradigm that may foster positive perceptions of aging among students when compared with a decay and decline paradigm. This paper describes an innovative approach to infusing optimal aging into a mandatory 2-credit doctoral entry-level physical therapy geriatrics course. Method/Model Description and Evaluation. Strategies to improve attitudes toward aging focused around active, regular engagement with older adults using physical therapy tasks within an optimal aging framework. The 3 course goals were: (1) to develop a desire to WANT to work with older adults, (2) for the student to appropriately apply sufficient intensity and specificity in the exercise prescription to avoid under-treating patients, and (3) for the student to distinguish the important from less important issues and facts during a history. The Knowledge of Aging Quiz assessed the core principles of optimal aging. Attitudes toward older adults were measured using the 14-item University of California, Los Angeles Geriatrics Attitude Scale (GAS). Two additional questions also were used: (1) "To what degree do you WANT to work with older adults?" and (2) "In the future, I would consider a specialty in geriatric physical therapy." Outcomes. Quantitative outcomes were collected from all 33 students taking the course. The students' knowledge of aging improved (P = .02) but GAS scores, positive at the beginning of the course, did not improve (P = .60). Scores on willingness to work with older adults and interest in specializing in geriatrics were significantly more positive at the end of the course (P < .05). None of the students who said they were unwilling to work with older adults at the start of the course remained unwilling at the end of the course. Eighty-six percent of students who completed the university course evaluation form expressed improvement in their confidence in treating older adults. Discussion and Conclusion. An optimal aging approach to geriatrics combined with active engagement with aging adults may have promise for increasing physical therapist students' knowledge of aging and greater willingness to work with older adults.