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National Institute on Aging
Med Students More Sensitive to Senior Citizens After
Art Class
Aug. 5, 2004 - Creating art with older “teammates”
made first-year medical students more sensitive to older people,
according to results of the Vital Visionaries Collaboration (VV), a
pilot program developed by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) in
conjunction with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the American
Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) in Baltimore, MD.
“Medical students who participated in this program
had a more positive attitude towards older people and the older
participants had a chance to explore their creative sides. It’s
wonderful when serious learning can be achieved amid a great deal of
laughter and good will,” said Judith A. Salerno, M.D., M.S., NIA Deputy
Director. “Too often medical students only interact with ill and frail
older people. The first step towards improving care for older people is
to improve how medical students view them.”
Launched in March 2004 as a pilot project, the VV
program paired 15 first-year medical students from Johns Hopkins with 15
older people from the Baltimore area. The two-person teams met and
learned from older visionary artists, took a contour drawing class, and
worked on various art projects at AVAM in conjunction with its year-long
exhibition, “Golden Blessings of Old Age/Out of the Mouths of Babes.”
Visionary art is produced by self-taught individuals, usually without
formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that
revels foremost in the creative act itself, according to AVAM
(www.avam.org).
Compared to non-participating students, the VV
medical students showed a statistically significant improvement in their
attitudes towards aging and older people in most areas tested by the
Aging Semantic Differential scale. After participating in the 4-part art
program, 11 of the 15 participating students said they would like to
have greater numbers of older patients in their future practices
compared to only 2 non-participating medical students. All of the Vital
Visionary medical students disagreed with the statements that working
with older patients would be less interesting than working with younger
patients and that older people are difficult to talk to.
However, among the non-participating medical
students, only 60% disagreed with the statement that older patients
would be less interesting to work with and 80% disagreed that older
patients are difficult to talk to. The number of VV students who were
interested in obtaining specialized training in geriatrics doubled in
comparison to their interest prior to the program. While still a pilot
program, the results were encouraging, Salerno said. The NIA plans to
make information available to others interested in starting a similar
program.
“We have been looking for ways to improve the way
medical students are educated about the world around them and to better
connect with people who are coming to them for help. The Vital
Visionaries has been a great way to forge those connections,” said Jean
Ogborn, M.D., who coordinates the JHM’s Physician in Society
class. “We hope to keep the Vital Visionaries going in some fashion.”
The numbers of physicians who specialize in medical
problems associated with aging are declining just as the need for their
services is increasing, according to a 2004 study contracted by the
Association of Directors of Geriatric Academic Programs. Currently,
there are about 7,500 geriatricians in the U.S. The group estimates
36,000 geriatricians will be needed by 2030 to treat the growing numbers
of older people.
“Can anyone imagine the good that would come from
museums across the country celebrating the creativity and vibrancy of
their community's oldest citizens? By enlightening a new generation of
physicians with first-hand knowledge that 'old' can mean the best, the
wisest, and the most fun that one can be, our Vital Visionaries
experience surpassed all our expectations and made great use of the
museum as an agent of positive change,” said Rebecca Hoffberger, AVAM
founder and director.
The Vital Visionaries program was based on a study
conducted by Dr. Marie A. Bernard and investigators at the University of
Oklahoma’s Reynolds Department of Geriatric Medicine. Their study,
published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
(March 2003), observed that “healthcare professionals tend to believe
that most older individuals are frail and dependent and that those who
are not are atypical” despite data showing that most elders are in good
health and live in the community. For a copy of the final report, please
contact Jeannine Mjoseth at 301/451-8409 or
mjosethj@nia.nih.gov.
The NIA leads the Federal effort supporting and
conducting research on aging and the health and well-being of older
people
www.nia.nih. NIA is part of the National Institutes of Health in
Bethesda, MD, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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