Development of a pre-health professions student volunteering/ mentorship program provide positive exposure, and address the economic challenge of the caregiver-patient ratio in geriatric memory units

ABSTRACT

The Garrison Geriatric Care and Education Center was established in 2005 as a teaching nursing home at Texas Tech University, (TTU), focused on memory care. Pre-health profession students run a volunteer group and have created a progressive learning platform to perform dementia caregiving tasks, including emotional support, managing behavioral symptoms, feeding, and structured activities. Our objectives were to provide experiential learning for pre-health students in a memory care unit, and to provide supportive care for dementia patients without increasing financial burden. Students are given opportunities for innovation, interprofessional collaboration, and leadership experience. Experiential learning of future health care professionals in this setting may produce healthcare teams that are more empathetic, anticipatory of patient needs, and who value an integrated health care system. Additionally, pre-health students receive volunteer hours in a healthcare setting which improve their professional school applications. Unpaid caregivers provided 18.6 billion hours of care to patients with age-related dementias in 2019.1 Despite this, the lifetime cost to a patient diagnosed with dementia for skilled care, medical attention, and housing is $357,297.1 Over the past four years through spring 2020, TTU volunteers contributed ∼1700 hours of unpaid care. We estimated the value of this care to be ∼$5,355 per year. The COVID-19 Pandemic has provided an opportunity to implement and evaluate innovative and collaborative education models in long-term care. The TTU Clinical Council has recently developed a work group, reporting to the Office of the President, based upon the success and passions of our student-run group. Undergraduate pre-health students are an untapped resource that could decrease the financial burden on families and the healthcare system, and serve as a powerful driver for change in the care of memory patients.