Geriatrics Recruitment Resources

at Baylor College of Medicine

Program Overview

The “Geriatrics Is Your Future” (GIYF) program is designed to expose second- and third-year Internal Medicine (IM) and Family Practice (FP) residents from training programs in the Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas regions to various topics in geriatrics and to encourage applications to geriatrics fellowships.

GIYF was developed on the premise that there are significant numbers of potential Geriatric Medicine fellows among IM and FP residents who are unaware that a geriatrics fellowship training pathway exists. Many of the 30 Internal Medicine and 28 Family Practice residency training programs in the Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas region have only loose or no affiliations with an academic geriatric medicine fellowship program.

This program has been held annually since 2000 and is populated by second- and third-year Internal Medicine and Family Practice residents who self-identify or are identified by the residency program directors.

The number of residents participating has gradually increased each year, to more than 35. The number of geriatrics fellowships participating has been as high as seven. The GIYF meeting is held in conjunction with the Texas Geriatrics Society meeting so that there is exposure to “real-life” geriatricians, as well as a saving of money and time.

Program Operations

The one-and-a-half day event begins with a Friday night dinner. On Saturday, six 45-minute clinical care updates on various topics (eg, delirium, falls, wound care, advance directives, pain management)
are taught primarily by junior faculty from Geriatric Medicine Fellowship programs in the region who are invited to participate. A luncheon with current geriatrics fellows from area programs provides an opportunity to answer residents’ practical questions and concerns. (Faculty are not present, to allow for more candid discussion.) This forum can also be used to highlight potential academic careers for interested residents.

Time and effort are required to create or reinforce ties between Baylor’s Center of Excellence (CoE) and the other Geriatric Medicine fellowship programs in the area to encourage participation. All participating programs are given an unparalleled opportunity to recruit in an enriched pool. In return, they are invited to contribute a speaker— either a current or previous-year fellow or another program spokesperson— and to send IM or FP residents who are interested in geriatrics from their home institutions.

To promote program participation, communication now includes “save the date” cards and e-mails to past program participants (who are great recruiters) and the residency program directors, and, if allowed, direct e-mails to the residents themselves.

Self-nomination is permitted, but nomination by the program directors is preferred. Applications are submitted by fax. Unless there are unusual circumstances, almost all applications are accepted.

Follow-up with participants is conducted by the individual programs to encourage application to their program.

Staffing Requirements

The first GIYF program required almost the full-time services of the CoE administrative staff person as well as significant part-time effort from the Baylor College of Medicine CoE physician faculty to make all of the arrangements, place calls to Geriatric Medicine fellowship directors and IM and FP residency directors, and take care of other logistical issues. In subsequent years, there has been a decrease in the time required from all staff.

Program Costs and Funding Sources

The annual budget is approximately $8,000-10,000 for 40 to 60 total participants (including faculty and fellows). It includes all travel and hotel expenses for the residents from the tri-state area, a hotel meeting space, catering, and AV costs.

Faculty expenses are paid by the faculty’s institution, where possible, or by the CoE. The participating programs are also invited to contribute to the cost of GIYF, and are expected to pay for their own fellows and faculty. Any program that wants to participate but cannot provide funding has been welcome to attend. At least five regional programs (fellowship programs) have participated in all years.

Process and Outcomes Data

All 58 residency programs in the tri-state region collaborate, with an average of 20 residents participating each year. In 2007, 31 residents attended. The program has fostered significant cooperation between the residency programs, resulting in an increase in the number that participate. When the program began, only programs in Texas participated. That has now expanded to include programs from Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Baylor has recruited one fellow in each year of the program. Other schools have also filled geriatrics fellowship training slots through this program. Many program participants reported that they did not realize there was an area of specialization in geriatrics with viable career options. Even those participants not interested in geriatrics fellowships report having a positive learning experience that will change the way they view and care for older adults.

Implementation Lessons

• Relationships need to be developed with residency program directors, many of whom have no link to the “Ivory Towers.” This tends to require more effort than originally anticipated and remains an ongoing task. Much improvement in the overall marketing of geriatrics is still needed.
• Substantial cost and time savings are realized by negotiating room and catering rates in conjunction with the Texas Geriatrics Society’s annual meeting. Efforts are made to get a pharmaceutical company representative to host the Friday night dinner. Support is acknowledged at the event.

Available Materials

Tools/Resources

• 2007 Registration Form
• 2007 Advertisement
• 2007 Agenda

For More Information

George E. Taffet, MD
Chief, Geriatrics Section
Huffington Center on Aging
Baylor College of Medicine
One Baylor Plaza, M320
Houston, TX 77030
(713) 798-2284
gtaffet@bcm.edu

Download the program as a PDF file