Abstract
INTRODUCTION The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report in 2008 entitled Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce that addressed the lack of health care providers to meet the needs of an aging US population.1 The number of older adults (aged 65 years and older) is expected to double from 2010 to 2050, reaching nearly 89 million.2 Furthermore, older adults rely heavily on health care services and consume a larger proportion of prescription medications than the rest of the population.1 In 2007-2008, more than 76% of Americans 60 years of age and older used at least 2 prescription drugs in the past month, while 37% used 5 or more.3 The IOM report offers suggestions to help mitigate this problem including boosting recruitment and retention of geriatrics specialists and enhancing geriatrics competence through substantial improvements in educational curricula and training programs.1 Despite these suggestions, only 15 out of 912 postgraduate year two (PGY2) residencies are geriatrics-focused and accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Apply principles of pharmacotherapy to patient care; compare and contrast pharmacotherapy principles in older and middle-aged adults; identify, resolve, and prevent medication-related problems, and manage medication therapy to ensure that medications are appropriate, safe, effective, and used correctly; communicate effectively with patients and caregivers to elicit candid health information; provide patient education that is culturally sensitive and at the appropriate level of health literacy; communicate relevant, concise, comprehensive, and timely information through oral and written communication in a clear manner using appropriate terminology and vocabulary for healthcare professionals; apply appropriate drug reference sources (electronic and printed) to retrieve drug-related information to identify, resolve, and prevent drug-related problems; discuss the pathophysiology, signs, symptoms, and treatment options for common diseases seen in older adults; describe the clinical pharmacology of commonly used medications in older adults; and demonstrate communications, attitude, behaviors, and appearance as articulated in the Attributes of Professionalism policy.