Preliminary report from the Kansas Hartford Geriatrics Project: A model of community university collaboration in geriatric medicine faculty development

OBJECTIVES: This paper describes the development, implementation, and participant satisfaction of a faculty development program for community-based clinician educators with competencies in geriatric medicine. DESIGN: One group, ongoing trial. SETTING: University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas. PARTICIPANTS: Family physicians and general internists from throughout the state of Kansas (n = 30). INTERVENTION: This is an integrated faculty development curriculum of clinical geriatrics and educational process offered in nine sessions over 3 years. MEASUREMENTS: Project retention, session attendance, and participant satisfaction are the measures of program success. MAIN RESULTS: Project retention at 18 months, the midpoint of this project, has been 87%, with 91% of the retained participants attending all of the sessions to date. More than 95% of the participants have rated each of the first five sessions as highly satisfactory or excellent in meeting their needs as a clinician educator. Satisfaction for on-site and interactive televideo participation has been equally high. CONCLUSIONS: Our preliminary results indicate the Kansas Hartford Geriatrics Project model of community-university collaboration in geriatric faculty development is successful in recruitment and satisfaction of participants. The curriculum is highly attractive and rewarding to faculty. Interactive televideo provides a successful innovation in aging-oriented faculty development.