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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Volunteering with older people in a care home | | Author(s) | Anthea Tinker, Victoria Berdugo, Michael Buckland |
| Journal title | Working with Older People, vol 21, no 4, 2017 |
| Publisher | Emerald, 2017 |
| Pages | pp 229-235 |
| Source | http://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/wwop |
| Keywords | Students ; Teaching hospitals ; Voluntary workers ; Care homes ; Attitudes to the old of general public. |
| Annotation | This paper investigates the influence that volunteering in a care home has on students' perceptions of older people before starting at medical school. Eight medical students answered an anonymous questionnaire relating to their experiences of volunteering in a care home before medical school. This was combined with an analysis of the relevant literature. All the students had initially volunteered, to enhance their CV for medical school. After volunteering, they had a greater realisation of the variety of older people. They also gained a number of transferable skills related to communicating with older people, especially those with cognitive impairment. The greatest learning experience was around issues to do with dementia. The authors of this article observe that it would be beneficial if care homes could be more proactive in encouraging prospective medical students to volunteer. Medical schools could also provide clearer advice or take a more active stance, such as encouraging prospective students to volunteer with older people. Further research should be conducted with a larger sample, to gain insight into varying perspectives. It would also be useful to conduct research into older adults' attitudes towards the contribution of potential medical students to their own lives and to the home. Volunteering before medical school should be encouraged: it could enhance the chances of getting a place as well as being an eye-opening experience and equipping the students with lifelong skills. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-171103210 A |
| Classmark | XN: V6: QV: KW: TOB |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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