The Need to Train Our Eldercare Workforce

Professionals who work with older adults and family caregivers often receive little to no formal training or support:

• Medical school students who choose geriatrics electives = less than 3%

• Social workers who report working with older adults = 75%

• Social workers who complete specialized geriatrics training, including both bachelor's and master's levels = 5%

• Physical therapists who report working with older adults = 87%
• Physical therapists certified as geriatric clinical specialists = less than 1%

• Practicing psychologists providing services to older adults = 69%
• Practicing psychologists who view geriatric patients as their primary professional target = 3%

• Psychologists exposed to graduate coursework in geropsychology = 25%

• Registered nurses certified as gerontological = less than 1%
• The vast majority of schools of nursing had no faculty members who were certified in gerontological nursing by the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

• Less than half of pharmacy schools have a distinct course in geriatrics despite the fact that per capita prescription drug use by people 65 and older is triple that of younger individuals.

• Less than one-fifth of schools training dentists, dental hygienists and other oral-health workers offer a course in geriatrics.
  

Findings of the Institute of Medicine's landmark report Retooling for an Aging America:
Building the Health Care Workforce (2008), Eldercare Workforce Alliance, and the Council for Social Work Education (2011).