The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #51914

Lisa Killinger, DC and Marie Dusio, RN, DC. Palmer College of Chiropractic, 741 Brady Street, Davenport, IA 52803, 563-884-5150, killinger_l@palmer.edu

From 1996-1999 the US Health Resources and Services Administration offered a series of contracts to the chiropractic profession to develop, assess, and implement a “model course” in geriatrics for chiropractic students. (1-2) We are currently institutionalizing and assessing the use of the ‘model course’, in classrooms of 120-210 students. The challenge is to determine whether the successes seen in pilot tests of the ‘model course’ (in classes of 20-40 students) can be retained in the institutionalization of this course in the larger classroom. This presentation will summarize the assessment results of the Palmore Facts on Aging Quizzes, Perceptions on Professions Questionnaires, and the Aging Semantics Differentials on 120 students, in the initial stages of implementing elements of the model course. The results have been compared to published literature on the knowledge, attitudes, and interdisciplinary perceptions of various health professional students. The same set of assessments were then administered to two subsequent classes of 130-150 students as the course was more completely “phased in” to the curriculum. This presentation will share the challenges to institutionalization of the model course, and describe how such challenges have been reflected in the assessment results. This presentation follows years of study of chiropractic geriatric education, and will provide information for use in refining and revising chiropractic geriatrics training programs to better prepare chiropractors to competently participate in meeting the healthcare needs of our graying nation.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will gain an understanding of the challenges of implementing innovation in chiropractic geriatric education.
• Attendees will become familiar with normative data on the attitudes and knowledge of geriatrics for various health professions students.
• Attendees will gain an appreciation of the progress made, and lessons learned, during the past 6 years of educational program development.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.