The Value of an Elder Teacher: Priceless
By Diane Vigue, RN, Resident Wellness Manager, The Osher Inn assisted living at The Cedars, southern Maine’s premier retirement community.
Many colleges and universities training health professionals use an integrative approach that incorporates classroom learning, labs for skill development and hands-on training. The Cedars retirement community has always opened its doors to provide clinical education and training to future health care providers. Today we affiliate with several schools to teach various health care disciplines such (physician’s assistants, nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, social service workers, registered dieticians and dietary technicians).
The staff and our residents at The Cedars have played an important role as teachers. Osher Inn residents, in collaboration with the University of New England, recently participated in a unique training program.
This past semester, several Osher Inn residents volunteered to be “elder teachers” to a group of students from the UNE physician’s assistant. Residents were interviewed and provided their input on areas of improved medical treatment and care. The goal of the visits was to refine the students’ assessment and patient interviewing skills and learn about a resident’s perspective on health care.
According to Joseph Wolfberg, MS-OMOC, UNE faculty, “We are trying to influence tomorrow’s health care providers to develop resident/patient-centered care, where the patient is seen as a person – not merely an illness. These ‘elder-teachers’ are vital to teaching our physician’s assistants what a patient values in the practitioner-patient relationship.”
The residents had nothing but great things to say about the students and their attention to detail. They were reported to show genuine concern for the resident’s well-being and had great ideas on what to do to improve their health.
The physician’s assistants in training will also do a clinical rotation at the Hoffman Center at The Sam L. Cohen Rehabilitation Center and Skilled Care Center later this year.