Costumi_Napoletani_-_Anziani_(Old_People_of_Naples)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Costumi_Napoletani_-_Anziani_(Old_People_of_Naples).jpg

Aged Care

Your geriatric rotation will build on your general medical understanding, and give you the opportunity to nail your pharmacology. Below are some links you might find useful.

Path Guy (bless his cotton socks) gives a detailed description of the process of ageing, and goes through AGING OF ORGANS AND SYSTEMS. Always eloquent.

VGMTP pretty much covers the basic giants of aged care, with case study examples, and e-ageing modules are also fantastic.

For more in depth cases, in a more interactive tutorial style, try The University of Iowa’s Geriatric Education Centre’s ‘geriasims‘. They take you through the giants of aged care in much more detail (through a case), getting you to read the history, review Ex, Ix, then give management suggestions, so it really gives you an opportunity to get your head around the appropriate pharmacology too. A word of warning: you’ll get through it much quicker if you turn the sound off.

The Association for Elderly Medicine Education (AEME) has posted some mini-gems (Geriatrics E-learning Modules), short videos on hot topics in geriatric medicine.

For AGS Beer’s Printable Pocket Card of medications to avoid in the elderly click here. It’s not very brief though…

Antipsychotics are used in aged care, in some circumstances. This set of videos explains the side effects of such pharmacotherapy.

For a great run-down on osteoporosis…

ALiEM covers geriatric medicine from the ED’s point of view. Check it out here for some cases.

POGOE (the Portal of Geriatric Online Education) has a number of quick videos for spot diagnoses, and some great balance and gait assessment videos. You need to register for the site too but thats quick and free. They also have quizzes and a number of other handy tidbits, for things you mightn’t have come across on the wards.

For some interesting reading on Elder Abuse, check out NursingHomeAbuseGuide.org. They also have some good resources worth a read, such as their bedsores guide.

Psychiatry of Old Age

Our page on links for mental health may help, but for aged-care specifics, try the Western Australia’s Centre for Health & Ageing’s module on depression.

For some Australian guidelines, look to RANZCP’s links.

Palliative Care

Palliative care is obviously relevant to all ages, but certainly something you will encournter on your aged care rotations. Blogs worth checking out on the topic: LITFL (comprehensive on pall care within the ICU setting, with an outstanding embedded video of a lecture from Ashley Shreves at EmCrit Conference 2013), PalliMed, GeriPal.

For an extensive list of fast facts about end end of life care (when you’re in a hurry) try EPERC’s site.

The PCC4U project has been created by the Australian Government Department of Health, and is a great learning resource for Australian palliative care placements.

In the twittersphere, every Wednesday there is a chat highlighting hospice and palliative medicine issues. You can follow that chat with #hpm (hospice and palliative medicine). #Hospice also shows plenty of up to date links. There is another on Monday nights (10pm Melbourne-Australian time) using #Hpmglobal, also discussing global hospice & palliative care. Spoilt.

An to finish with a little bit of silliness from GeriPal: