ELDERLY MEDICINE - Course description

ELDERLY MEDICINE COURSE Description
Academic year 2019/2020
Spring semester:

Overview of the ElderlyMedicinecourse

During Elderly Medicine course students will obtain knowledge and practical skills of the care of elderly patients.
Elderly Medicine course is conducted for one semester and covers topics regarding the most common medical problems and issues of care of elderly patients.
Thirty academic hours are divided between one seminar and nine lab sessions.
Course topics include:

• Communication with elderly patients and their families including communicating difficult and serious information
• Principles of in-patient care of elderly patient including elderly patient hand-offs and sin-out to ambulatory care
• Assessment of general health and well-being of elderly patients with the utilisation of geriatric scales
• Frailty syndrome and principle of management of elderly patients with multiple comorbidities.
• Principles of pharmacotherapy in elderly patients: polypharmacy and its common adverse effects.
• Selected diseases requiring special approach in elderly patients
a. fever and abdominal pain
b. acute dyspnoea and respiratory failure
c. emergency airway management
d. cardio-pulmonary emergencies
e. common arrhythmias
f. altered mental status
g. geriatric trauma
• Selected ethical problems in care of the elderly patients.