Fostering Geriatric Interdisciplinary Collaboration Through Academic Education

The University of New England created a structured academic experience for its medical, occupational and physical therapy students in which the students worked together using a geriatric case study format, confirming previous research findings that these disciplines use a clinical reasoning process to generate clinical hypotheses.

Abstract

Collaboration among medical disciplines enables practitioners to provide optimal health care to patients, especially the elderly. In order to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, the University of New England created a structured academic experience for its medical, occupational and physical therapy students in which the students worked together using a geriatric case study format. Students who participated in the experience reported it to be beneficial. In addition, data collected during the experience confirmed previous research findings that these disciplines use a colnmon clinical reasoning process to generate clinical hypotheses. These results would support the continuation of such academic experiences for the purpose of fostering geriatric interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between occupational and physical therapists.