The senior living industry needs to help people realize that there are several ways to be involved in healthcare, including working with older adults, according to one community leader.
The Legacy Senior Communities, which has two continuing care retirement communities, in Plano, TX, and Dallas, has partnered with Texas Woman’s University to raise awareness among young medical professionals about the underserved gerontology community. Through a semester-long internship program begun two years ago, Legacy now has helped train approximately 11 undergraduate medical students, providing hands-on experiences for students in physical and occupational therapy career paths.
Elizabeth Niksich, director of wellness for The Legacy Midtown Park in Dallas, replicated an internship program she developed at a previous senior living community with the university. She said her hope is that the young students have the opportunity to work with older adults and can develop confidence.
“There’s a lot of fear in working with a frailer population or a population they may not be experienced with or even engaging with on a day-to-day basis,” she said. “By building confidence and seeing rewards in helping seniors, it helps field the opportunities for them, because our population is just aging at such an accelerated rate because of the [baby] boomers. We need to have people want to work with seniors to make sure they are well taken care of.”
Legacy provides therapy services in the homes of its independent living residents, through its wellness center and within its rehabilitation facility. Interns work throughout the continuum under the supervision of trained team members to gain confidence working with an older population and, for some students, in changing career paths to the senior living field.
Niksich said that the residents see the interns as bringing a “fresh energy” into the space and have formed relationships with the students that improve their outcomes. She added that the program has created more talented team members because they have to be able to answer the “whys” and what “ifs,” which improves their skills and provides a better level of care or service to residents.
Residents who were former nurses, physicians and professors at the UT Southwestern Medical Center have worked with the interns, participating in interviews, undergoing therapy or providing career coaching and mentoring.
Niksich said she frequently hears about the shortage of nurses in healthcare. But she said the senior living industry can help bring people into the mindset that there are many ways to be involved in healthcare.
A word of advice
For other providers considering an internship program, Niksich said that having a dedicated employee serve as a liaison between the university, students and residents is key to a successful program. She added that the point person needs to be someone who has the “heart and mind of a teacher” because the person will spend a great deal of time debriefing with students and helping them learn to apply new skills in the future.
Niksich added that students want to do more than wipe down equipment and shuffle papers.
“They want to have purposeful, results-driven types of experiences, because that’s what makes it worth their time,” she said. Student interns for Legacy, Niksich added, walk away not only with hands-on experience, but a portfolio of projects and events that they managed, delivered or created, which can help with a graduate school or employment applications. “It has to be someone focused and going to be that mentor or coach or teacher,” she said.
