Mission
The University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine's Division of Geriatrics is a leader of older adult person-centered care through a coordinated program of clinical services, professional education, older adult advocacy, and scholarly activities.
Academy for Gerontology/Geriatrics in Higher Education Program of Merit
The UNE COM Division of Geriatrics has been awarded the Academy for Gerontology/Geriatrics in Higher Education (AGHE) Program of Merit (POM) in recognition of our robust geriatrics curriculum. UNE COM is the first college of osteopathic medicine to attain this award.
As a result of this award, all UNE COM graduates from 2025 through the class of 2030, will be presented with a personalized certificate from the Gerontological Society of America that confers this honor. Additionally, starting in 2025, all second-year osteopathic students will be provided with a Curriculum Vitae (CV) citation to include under awards and honors.
Values
- Excellence in geriatrics education, scholarship, and clinical services
- Professionalism and respect for older adults and their care partners and ensuring our students are aware of the detrimental health effects of ageism
- Health promotion and disease management that incorporates the dynamic interaction of mind, body, and spirit
- Innovative and creative scholarship and research that advances and translates the interprofessional principles and practices of geriatrics care and services through the lens of Age Friendly Health Systems, ensuring person-centered outcomes that honor what matters most to the person.
- Collaboration among health professions for the betterment of older adults
- Engaged to health policy advocacy for older adults
Goals
- Strengthen and implement a consolidated didactic curriculum for preclinical education in geriatrics for COM that engages learners in a person/patient-first approach.
- Strengthen the clinical practices through education and practicums to emphasize older person/doctor relations to maximize older adult health and wellbeing.
- Advance additional elective classroom, small group, clinical care, and research activities to augment learning related to older adult health care practices, case presentations, documentation skills, and keeping in mind age-friendly healthcare approaches.
- Develop elective clerkships in geriatrics while seeking the resources for a required clerkship for all UNE COM students.
- Advance opportunities in geriatrics scholarship/research for students supported by UNE COM faculty and leaders in the field worldwide.
- Develop and implement expanded clinical services in geriatrics that are fiscally and clinically sound.
- Advance the Mature Care multi-professional practice and its educational offerings to UNE COM students.
- Establish an ambulatory clinical consultative and evaluation services.
- Expand the scope of the U-ExCEL program at Piper Shores Retirement Living Community and engage students in its offerings for internships, scholarship, and research.
- Expand the current high number of UNE COM students that are choosing geriatrics and palliative care/hospice fellowships post residency training.
- Develop and implement dissemination strategies for knowledge, attitude, and skills in geriatrics with UNE health professions programs and community partners.
- Continue and expand UNE COM’s partnership with the UNE Center for Excellence in Aging and Health to develop, promote, model, and implement interprofessional activities in the field of aging.
- Develop outreach programs for consultation and promotion of geriatrics knowledge, skills, and attitudes for practitioners.
- Seek external and internal funding resources to advance the goals of the division.