Nancy Aries, PhD¹, Tracey Dewart, PhD², Shoshanna Sofaer, DrPH¹, Jeremy Boal, MD³, and David Muller, MD³. (1) School of Public Affairs, Baruch College, 17 lexington Avenue, New York City, NY 10010, 212-8025966, nancy_aries@baruch.cuny.edu, (2) Consultant, 12 West 29th Street #6, New York City, NY 10001, (3) Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1 Gustave Levy Place, Box 1216, New York City, NY 10029

Two physicians created the Visiting Doctors program at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City in response to growing concerns that health care and medical education undermine physicians’ professional responsibilities to their patients, particularly those who are elderly or come from disadvantaged backgrounds. A preliminary assessment of the effects of a structured one-month home visiting rotation for all second year internal medicine residents was conducted in 2001 to determine the effectiveness of using home visiting as a method to teach medical professionalism. The study was based on 34 interviews before and after the rotation with 17 second year residents, and 19 interviews with residents who completed the rotation one and two years earlier. These residents found the Visiting Doctors program to be an innovative community-based approach to service delivery that was highly effective at reinforcing several dimensions of professionalism: 1) heightening residents awareness of patient directed care; 2) sensitizing physicians to environmental, cultural and socio-economic issues that impact health and well-being of the elderly population; and 3)underscoring the importance of collaborating with community based agencies and other care-givers to meet their patients’ needs. The Visiting Doctors program offers a uniquely structured teaching opportunity that supports a set of value orientations about how a doctor should practice medicine and that enhances the skills doctors need to address an aging population with chronic and debilitating conditions. Home visiting can be an effective way to teach residents about professionalism in medicine by making residents both practitioners and students of community practice.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify emerging issues concerning services to homebound and older populations
• Describe how a block rotation utilizing home visits provides a unique experience that address concerns related to medical professionalism
• Define a set of skills residents acquired through home visits to homebound and older adults

Keywords: Home Visiting, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.