DEVELOPMENT OF A UNIQUE GERIATRICS CURRICULUM FOR NON-GERIATRICIAN FACULTY IN TURKEY

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to describe the geriatric training initiatives implemented as a part of faculty development in geriatrics in Ondokuz Mayis University in 2005 and to evaluate the resulting structure, processes and outcomes. Materials and Method: The project was composed of: 1) Improving and enhancing the learning objectives according to the nuclear education program of medical schools in Turkey; 2) Implementation of the geriatrics block; 3) Evaluation of the outcome by feedbacks provided by 10 tutors and 78 students. Results: In accordance with the 71 learning objectives, four PBL (Problem based learning) sessions, eight presentations and two clinical skills laboratory sessions were constructed. All learning activities were evaluated by feedback forms filled on a voluntary basis. Ethics presentation was found to be significantly superior in terms of clear definition of the objectives (p=0.006). Three of the scenarios were functional in terms of the evaluation criteria. The first scenario was evaluated as defective in terms of learning what to know (p=0.007), finding sufficient sources of information (p<0.0001), and general evaluation (p=0.008) by the students and by tutors (p=0.03). Conclusion: For countries like Turkey which have limited resources for geriatric departments, our study may be a template to develop geriatric curricula.