Responses of fourth-year medical students to a required clerkship in geriatrics

Fourth-year medical students at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine of the City University of New York taking a required four-week clinical clerkship in geriatrics were surveyed before and after the clerkship on their knowledge of geriatrics, attitudes toward the elderly, and evaluation of the rotation. The students showed a significant improvement in their knowledge of geriatrics and gave a mildly favorable evaluation of geriatrics as a required clerkship. Their attitudes toward the elderly did not change, however. This latter finding may be related to favorable attitudes before the clerkship, some factor inherent to the clerkship, or the previously demonstrated lack of correlation between measured attitudes and behavior. The present authors suggest that educators, in establishing clinical clerkships in geriatrics, should focus on imparting knowledge in geriatrics, should assess students’ acceptance of the clerkship carefully, and should not use changes in attitudes toward the elderly as the sole measure of the effectiveness of such a clerkship.