GeriU – Geriatrics Training at your Fingertips

In July 2000, the State of Florida designated the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital as Florida’s official Teaching Nursing Home, with training activities coordinated through the Stein Gerontological Institute (SGI), MJHH’s academic arm. GeriU, AKA the Online Geriatrics University, is an innovative outgrowth of SGI’s mandate to develop education-based strategies for long-term care workforce development and to coordinate a statewide process for disseminating information related to the improvement of geriatric care in long-term care settings to medical and nursing professionals. One of the program’s strong suits is its convenience and practicality. “GeriU,” says MJHH’s medical director, Dr. Michael Silverman, “puts geriatrics at your fingertips, right on the computer. It’s an opportunity for healthcare personnel to develop their skills, understanding and approach to the geriatric patient in an extremely convenient format. GeriU is a cutting edge ‘one-stop shop’ for geriatric training.”

GeriU staffers (l-r): David Freeman, programmer; Aaron McEntire, coordinator; Sobia Qadri, educational researcher; and James Jones, multimedia designer.

GeriU operates two websites: www.GeriU.org, and www.LTC.GeriU.org. Some information for the general public is posted on the GeriU.org site, covering topics such topics as preventing falls and dealing with dementia, while LTC.GeriU.org is more specifically geared to the long-term care and nursing communities. GeriU Coordinator, Aaron McEntire, explains, “GeriU is an important part of SGI. Right now it’s one of the major things SGI is involved with.” GeriU’s staff consists of McEntire, a programmer, a researcher, a video designer, and an animator/graphic artist, all under the direction of Dr. Jorge Ruiz, who is responsible for overseeing the team and insuring medical accuracy and educational efficacy of content.

One of GeriU’s roles is to provide login geriatrics training for University of Miami medical students. UM geriatrics professors use GeriU to provide educational materials, track the use of online tutorials, and administer online assessments and tests. GeriU also currently offers curricula that satisfy the State of Florida’s requirements for Alzheimer’s and dementia training for long-term care staff statewide, and it has produced a series of training DVD’s designed for nurse education and upper level administrators. Another pilot project involves providing nurses with PDA’s, personal digital assistants, and then assessing how the nurses respond to using a new technology.

Although GeriU was conceived as a statewide online resource for geriatrics education, anyone can use it and it is not Florida specific. Recently, Arkansas’ version of AHCA began distributing the CNA and LPN curricula developed by GeriU to all the nursing homes in that state.