The Fellowship Experience

The Fellowship program collaborates with many organizations and community resources to provide a well-rounded educational experience. Our clinical partners include the UI Geriatrics Assessment Clinic, area long term care facilities, UI inpatient units, Iowa City VA Medical Center, rehabilitation facility, local hospice organizations, and patients’ homes.

The home base for geriatric fellowship teaching is the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) Geriatrics Assessment Clinic located at Iowa River Landing-East (IRL-E), two miles from the main hospital. It is there that fellows work closely with faculty geriatricians and members of the assessment team, which includes a Pharm D and MSW who specialize in the care of older adults. Our geriatric faculty model approaches to patient care and work one-on-one with fellows to improve their knowledge base, clinical skills, professionalism, practice management, communication skills, and help fellows develop an understanding of the larger systems impacting patient care. Fellows staff every patient with faculty and receive immediate feedback on their performance. Additionally, fellows are an integral part of the clinically based multidisciplinary geriatrics team. They routinely provide educational sessions with medical student rotating in geriatrics and serve in a leadership role on the Family Medicine inpatient care team.

The Geriatric medicine Fellowship Program incorporates a multidisciplinary approach for trainees to:

Teaching occurs in the clinical setting and in formal settings such as weekly rounds, staffing, and conferences. Because the fellowship program is small, fellows receive very close faculty supervision and instruction. In the clinical setting, approaches to patient care are modeled, fellows are observed interacting with patients, staffing is mandatory, and fellows receive immediate feedback on their performance. Learning opportunities are identified based on issues that arise in clinical encounters. Teaching (i.e. about a specific geriatric syndrome) is done in the context of clinical care and fellows receive self- guided learning activities to improve knowledge in identified content or skill areas. Formal instruction occurs through weekly rounds and staffing. The goal of this combined clinical and didactic approach is to provide fellows with training that encompasses the full spectrum of clinical care; provide substantial experiences in the evaluation and management of complex geriatric syndromes; prepare fellows to pass their geriatrics boards; and prepare them to become clinical educators in geriatrics care.

Curriculum Overview

Rotation selection and curricular content is based on RRC requirements including the core competencies, the Geriatric Review Syllabus of the American Geriatrics Society, and faculty experts. 

 Fellows must complete several required experiences including

• ambulatory geriatric continuity and consultative care
• long-term care
• home care
• neurology
• urology
• urogynecology
• geriatric psychiatry
• inpatient care
• physical medicine and rehabilitation
• hospice and palliative medicine
• community medicine

A wide range of electives can be tailored to meet individual fellow’s specific learning needs. Additionally, each fellow has a dedicated Continuity of Care Clinic 1-2 half days a week.

Fellowship Qualifications

• Satisfactory completion of a three-year accredited Family Medicine or Internal Medicine program and/or be board certified in Family Medicine or Internal Medicine
• Demonstrated interest and involvement in geriatrics
• Commitment to a clinical or academic career in geriatric medicine

Applications are accepted through ERAS August through December. Qualified candidates will be invited for an interview day. Candidates will be ranked on the basis of their professional background, personal statement, CV, letters of recommendation, and interview.