Outcomes from an interprofessional, dementia-focused, telementoring program: a brief report

• Published in: Gerontology & geriatrics education pp. 1 - 6
• Main Authors: Fernandez, Julianna, Agarwal, Kathryn S, Amspoker, Amber B, Godwin, Kyler M, Green, Erial, Pickens, Sabrina, Lindo, Jasmin, Asghar-Ali, Ali Abbas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 30.08.2023
• Subjects: residents; telementoring; education; pharmacists; Dementia
• ISSN: 0270-1960; 1545-3847
• DOI: 10.1080/02701960.2023.2253175

Despite a burgeoning older-adult population, the number of health-care professionals with geriatric expertise continues to lag behind. In 2014, the American Geriatrics Society's position statement encouraged interprofessional training for health-care professionals. Telementoring remotely connects clinicians with specialists for education and group mentoring. This dementia-focused, 11-month, 1-hour each, telementoring program was modeled on the Alzheimer's Association ECHO. Our interprofessional expert panel consisted of a geriatrician, a geriatric psychiatrist, an adult nurse practitioner (with geriatric expertise), two geriatric pharmacists, a licensed social worker (coordinating a dementia day program), and a project coordinator. Learners were residents in family medicine and general psychiatry, physician assistant residents in mental health and geriatric psychiatry fellows (total = 31). There was a significant improvement in learner intentions to change medication prescribing by midpoint assessment (  = 0.04). Learners reported few barriers to incorporating skills they learned. An interprofessional telementoring program can help nongeriatric practitioners improve skills in caring for older adults.