Study Geriatrics

What is Geriatrics?

Geriatrics is the branch of health care that focuses on elderly people. In certain aspects of some cultures, geriatrics as an occupation, holds all the panache of the pot washer or toilet cleaner. Tending to the sick is one thing but compassion seems to go out of the window when the patient is not just sick but OLD too!

This perception is more than likely linked to our common human aversion and difficulty in accepting both the aging process and dying. Fortunately, lots of people find caring for elderly people extremely rewarding, yet with an aging population, the demand for geriatric care is outstripping supply.

During the course of their studies, geriatric students will pay special attention to what are commonly referred to as the Geriatric giants, the major categories of impairment that fail during the aging process. These include impaired intellect/memory, instability, incontinence, and immobility.  

Common problems associated with aging include impaired hearing and vision and many suffer from depression due to the effects of isolation. Elderly people may also manage a number of chronic conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, cardiac issues, blood pressure, cancers and may develop dementia or Alzheimer's. As such, those working in geriatric medicine are specialists in the management of these conditions, and often working holistically within a team of primary healthcare workers.

Careers in Geriatrics

In the US to become a geriatrician you’ll be a primary care physician with additional qualifications in geriatric medicine. Geriatricians work in the community as well as in hospital settings.

Linked professions include:

Occupational therapists

Geriatric Nurses

Pharmacists

Social workers

Nutritionists

Physical therapists

If you think you can deliver exceptional and dignified care to an elderly person, then a career in geriatrics can be exceptionally rewarding. With age brings humility - and many of these patients (and their families) will thank you beyond graciously for your help in what can be a deeply traumatic and personal time. Above all, probably more so than with any other aspect of medicine, you’ll have to manage bereavement and terminal care on an almost daily basis. That means learning how to cut off from a particularly upsetting shift to get back to your family and life.  

If you’d like to work in geriatric care, nursing assistant salaries are still quite low, so if you can handle the school, the advice is to keep studying, as geriatric nurses earn around $70,000. Geriatricians being specialist doctors with additional qualifications earn a median wage in excess of $190,000.  

If you think you have what it takes to enter geriatric medicine then take a little time to visit The American Geriatrics Society or The Gerontological Society of America. You can also take a moment to watch this short video which features a medical student empathizing with elderly nursing home patients during her training.  

Learning Geriatrics

Regardless of whether you are learning geriatrics at a nursing or doctorate level you will  be learning medical and scientific knowledge that you’ll need to remember and build on in your everyday professional lives.

Brainscape has proven to be an outstanding aid to all types of medical students. The unrivaled learning boost that Brainscape delivers will allow you to cement  key foundational medical knowledge and concentrate on delivering excellence in practice.

Geriatrics in Brainscape

There are thousands of flashcards dedicated to Geriatrics in Brainscape. If you are learning geriatrics you might also link to other pages such as nutrition, anatomy, rheumatology, psychology, occupational therapy, urology, and cardiology in your studies, which also have thousands of flashcards.

If you need great scores for nursing or medical college then check out the AP Biology and AP Chemistry study guides in Brainscape which are helping students to ace their exams.

If you prefer to make your own content to cover your geriatric class then Brainscape is free to use. We thrive on the contribution of our users, you can keep your interactive learning catalog private or share it with classmates and the Brainscape community.

Learn faster with Brainscape

Brainscape’s unique learning system known as Confidence-Based Repetition or CBR is exciting news for learners.

The CBR system allows students to cover content optimally, as a result, they learn twice as fast and remember longer. How is this possible? Read on to learn about this super-charged learning tool.

The Brainscape system incorporates three learning methods into the CBR system, Active Recall, Metacognition, and Spaced Repetition. Other computer-aided learning tools, use some techniques but none have created a system as powerful as CBR that incorporates all three.

The first of the methods used in CBR is active recall, which is a process of retrieving information and not simply recognizing correct answers in the same pattern as in the case of some learning tools. The active recall process in Brainscape will have you strengthening your neurons so when you next try to retrieve the same information the pathways are stronger, and retrieval is easier.

The unique game-changing method that Brainscape incorporates is a metacognitive process whereby you review your flashcard as you study. You’ll be asked to rate your understanding from 1-5 and in doing so, the algorithm will set the flashcards future frequency accordingly. Cards you know well won’t be repeated very often giving you the time to focus on weaker areas. As your understanding improves the algorithm perfectly repositions the card again and again. Traditional learning cannot do this and the results are outstanding in terms of effective learning.

Finally, CBR also includes spaced repetition in its system which is a proven method of learning in bite-sized pieces at regular intervals.

Brainscape is the tool that thousands of doctors and nurses have relied on to get through med school and nursing college.  

How to get started

Getting started with Brainscape is easy.

Simply browse the decks below and you’ll see topics from Dementia, Depression, and Osteoporosis, to Falls and Immobility. Just click on one and get started now.  

Alternatively, if you’ve a heap of coursework you’d like to learn the Brainscape way, you can click on “make flashcards” at the top of the page and start creating your own personal learning catalog, today.

Brainscape is excited to deliver students the best educational tools available on the market. The Brainscape team wishes you all the best in your Geriatric studies and career.