Rejuvinating the Geriatrics Curriculum – Thanuja Chandrasena DO

Thanuja Chandrasena DO

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Community and Family Medicine

thanuja.chandrasena@ttuhsc.edu

Biography:

Thanuja Chandrasena, D.O. is an Assistant Professor at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center for the Community and Family Medicine Amarillo Residency Program (TTFM Amarillo). Dr. Chandrasena started with Neurobiology B.S. at University at Texas at Austin where she was involved with the Freshman Research Initiative. She then went to medical school at University of North Texas Health Science Center – Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine. She graduated from medical school and accepted as a Family Medicine resident at TTFM Amarillo. At TTFM, she completed her training, last year of residency as Chief Resident, and was later invited on to stay as faculty.  During this time she has continued to develop and refine her passion for Geriatric Medicine by establishing a formal Geriatric Curriculum.

Summary for Poster:

TTFM Amarillo for the past 10 years has changed the approach to Geriatric education several times. The program is well versed in taking care of elderly patients through the clinic and hospital rotation, but unfortunately due to changing long-term care facility affiliations, a comprehensive Geriatric education has been difficult to maintain. The hope of this curriculum is to lay a foundation for curriculum design that is based on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requirements and founded on the goals and needs of the program leadership and residents. An extensive literature review was done to obtain a general needs assessment using the Society of Teacher of Family Medicine, American Academy of Family Practice, and ACGME resources. This literature review was combined with a needs assessment using interviews and surveys. This helped get specific data from within the program itself to cater the education to the general and specific needs of the residency. From this foundation a plan to execute a Geriatric curriculum was created that was enacted through 2019 and onward. The curriculum was made so that it can be adapted to the changes and needs of the program. It is hopes that this foundation will allow for continual growth and adaptation to maintain high standards of TTFM’s education.

Poster:

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Rejuvinating the Geriatrics Curriculum – Thanuja Chandrasena DO