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For Prospective Fellows
Hello and welcome! We at Stony Brook Medicine's Geriatric Fellowship Program want to thank you for your interest in our training program. We provide a comprehensive curriculum designed to produce outstanding clinical and academic Geriatricians and Geriatric-Hospitalists. We are proud to offer two program tracks: a one-year Geriatric Medicine track and two-year Hospitalist-Geriatric Medicine track. With strong emphasis on academics and clinical experience in various settings, as well as physician wellness, our Geriatric Medicine Fellowship will allow you to grow and become a well-rounded physician who can easily manage the growing elderly population.
Fellowship in Geriatrics
The Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program at SUNY Stony Brook prepares internists and family physicians to become highly skilled clinicians and educators in the field of Geriatrics, as well as acquire the requisite teaching and research skills needed to pursue a career in academic medicine. Our comprehensive curriculum covers the full continuum of geriatric care - from the acute inpatient hospital to the outpatient office, to the home or assisted living facility, to the teaching nursing home. Our fellows care for elderly patients with a wide variety of medical problems – from the essentially healthy elder who has limited disease to the frail nursing home resident with multiple comorbidities.
Our program offers two unique Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Tracks: the one-year ACGME accredited Primary Geriatric Medicine track and the two-year ACGME accredited Geriatric-Hospitalist track.
The one-year ACGME accredited Primary Geriatric Medicine track allows you to follow your own panel of patients at our Primary Care Center and the Long Island State Veterans’ Home, complete multiple rotations in varying clinical settings, participate in different quality improvement and scholarly projects, assist in the teaching of medical students, and so much more.
The two-year Geriatric-Hospitalist Track is an innovative ACGME accredited program that implements an “interrupted” training that allows you to work as a Hospitalist Attending for six months of the year and then as a Geriatric Medicine Fellow for the other six months. This program focuses on training fellows to teach, lead team-based care, and communicate effectively with patients, colleagues and staff. This track gives you the best of both worlds: extra geriatric training and higher pay.
Stony Brook University Geriatric Fellowship was the first program to create and obtain ACGME approval of this innovative program in Geriatric Hospitalist Medicine. Our program is considered the "gold star" by ACGME, our accrediting body.
We have had many fellows use both tracks to their advantage. Our program is unique in that we have flexibility in regards to rotations as well as electives. Our Program Director works one-on-one with you to create a custom schedule that fulfills your individualized learning needs to help meet your future goals.
Our program’s goal is to have our graduates not only be extremely knowledgeable in the specialty, but be able to educate others in the field of geriatrics. We have a strong focus on academics and teaching. Our program leadership works with you to help you set up scholarly projects (like QAPIs), research, or clinical experience. We want to help you put what you’re learning into practice, as well as see outcomes in real time. This scholarly work and development of administrative skills so important for success in academic medicine.
Besides our comprehensive curriculum, we also offer a Leadership Curriculum. This opportunity allows you to work with leaders in medicine and learn from them one-on-one. Our fellows have worked with many leaders including, our Department of Medicine Chair, the DIO, Deans in the School of Medicine, Nursing Home Medical Directors, ACP Governors, and more. The curriculum focuses on patient safety, quality improvement, inter-professional collaboration, and health systems.
Our institution offers fellows a competitive salary and benefits, but our Geriatric fellows are the only ones who can receive up to $5000 in reimbursement for educational pursuits and materials, as well as courses or conferences. It is through our dedicated Geriatric Education Fund that we are able to offer this to our fellows. In addition, our program also pays for your membership to our specialty’s society (the American Geriatric Society) and online access to its review materials to help you prepare for the board exam at the end of your training.
We offer five (5) fellowship positions each year (one through the alternative pathway for two candidates). The Stony Brook Geriatric Medicine Fellowship program participates in the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). Applicants should apply through ERAS.
Those who complete our training program have the necessary skills to become leaders in the field of Geriatric and Geriatric-Hospital medicine. Our graduates have gone on to do amazing things, like becoming Medical Directors, training Program Directors and Associate Program Directors, or have gone on to pursue other specialties like endocrinology, rheumatology, and cardiology. Here in Stony Brook's Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program the possibilities are endless!
Program Wellness
Our program prides itself on how seriously it takes fellow wellness. Here our fellowship office has an "open door" policy and encourage our fellows to stop by whether it’s to say hello or ask for assistance. Besides this policy, we also offer weekly wellness activities to help with stress like meditation, games, arts and crafts. We also host lunches for you and your cohort with past fellows who can give insight on life after the program. We also have wellness and support resources readily available to you (including free and confidential mental health assistance), a Resilience Center in our hospital that offers a safe and quiet environment to recharge, GME sponsored wellness events like Pet-a-Puppy (where they bring in puppies to play with and pet), and so much more. We understand how stressful the journey to your ultimate goal can be and we strive to help alleviate some of that stress if we can in any way.
Overview and Highlights
· Upon completion, fellows are eligible to sit for CAQ in Geriatric Medicine
· Training in all aspects of Geriatric Medicine
· Didactic training in statistical analysis and epidemiology
· Many QI/QA project opportunities
· Excellent continuity of care experience in the outpatient clinic, which offers a multidisciplinary “Enhanced Geriatric Care” program for frail elders at high risk for hospitalization and institutionalization, in the nursing home (through weekly visits), and in the home care program
· Leadership training
· Health Literacy training
· Access to a Clinical Simulation Center
· Many teaching opportunities
· Affiliation with three teaching nursing homes with dedicated full-time, board certified faculty
· End of life palliative medicine training at University Hospital and with a highly respected community-based hospice program
· One-on-one mentoring from experienced faculty
· Geriatric board exam preparation
Testimonials
“This fellowship has provided me with the tools to care for the elderly both in the inpatient and outpatient setting. I have found great mentors that have helped nurture my foundational knowledge and skills… It is, without hesitation, one of the best decisions I have made as a physician.”
(Dr. Cristina Marti)
"The fellowship was extremely helpful in getting any job I wanted. The uniqueness of the combined fellowship made me stand out among other applicants. I was usually the top candidate for the places I applied to and many attributed it to the fellowship. In fact, it helped me became a medical director now." (Dr Don Nguyen)
"I definitely think the combined geriatric-hospitalist program helped me tailor my care for the geriatric population. By recognizing the significance of delirium, pressure injuries, prolonged hospital stay, immobility, goals of care, etc. you minimize common geriatric complications. I’ve implemented these topics in my teaching with residents and geriatric fellows and found this to have a positive impact on patient care, multidisciplinary meetings and education. I think this track provides an additional tool set to improve care for the elderly." (Dr Eera Jain)
"For me, I thought that I knew how to care for our older adult population, but the fellowship made me so much more confident. The combination of fellowship with Hospitalist let us take these skills and apply them directly to inpatient care with an increasingly aging population. Additionally, the combined program allowed for good work-life balance."
(Dr. Lindsey Schachter)
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Why Choose Stony Brook for your Residency or Fellowship?
