How To Become A Geriatrician

You can begin learning more about geriatrics by taking courses, clinical clerkships and rotations in geriatrics while in medical school. Physicians who decide on geriatrics as a career choice pursue a residency in family practice, internal medicine, osteopathic medicine or psychiatry.

Primary care physicians may educate themselves further in geriatrics through continuing medical education courses, self-assessment programs, and review of medical journals such as the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Formally trained geriatricians acquire special knowledge and skills through completing a geriatrics fellowship program. Fellowships are available through departments of family practice, internal medicine and psychiatry. Administration of fellowship programs is sometimes shared between departments.

A Certificate of Added Qualifications (CAQ) in Geriatric Medicine or Geriatric Psychiatry is offered through the certifying boards in family practice, internal medicine, osteopathic medicine, and psychiatry for physicians who have completed a fellowship program in geriatrics. The length of formal geriatrics training is linked to the individual's career goals in clinical care, teaching or research and can vary from two to four years. For example, clinical educators require two years of training and will become full-time medical school faculty or clinical faculty.

--The American Geriatrics Society  "Why Geriatrics as a Career Choice?"  1998

 

Additional information (number and location of programs, stipends, etc.) about Geriatric fellowships can be found on the FREIDA page. Link to: http://www.ama-assn.org/cgi-bin/freida/freida.cgi