Faculty members were recently selected for the Geriatric Education Center’s Interdisciplinary Geriatric Teaching Scholars Program. The program is open to faculty who are non-geriatricians and non-geriatric specialty trained.

The program’s goal is for faculty to interdisciplinarily develop, integrate and disseminate geriatric curricula throughout their specific disciplines or specialties and to other disciplines.

This year’s scholars include Kelly Klein, M.D., associate professor; Kim Peck, M.D., associate dean of admissions and minority affairs; and Yan Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Health Services Research and Management; all in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in Lubbock. Jamie McCarrell, Pharm. D., with the School of Pharmacy at Amarillo, was also selected.

Klein’s project will focus on resident training in rural based nursing homes. McCarrell’s focus is on the enhancement and standardization of core concepts and disease states within a multi-campus geriatrics clerkship.

Zhang and Peck will be working together to promote awareness among medical students and physicians on the use of complementary and alternative medicine.

In July, the Geriatric Education Center released a request for applications for curricular projects in geriatrics. The center offers travel support for awardees to attend geriatric scientific meetings and training events.

Last year’s scholar was LaMicha Hogan, R.N., MSN, assistant professor in the Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing. Hogan’s project encompassed the infusion of end of life care curricula.