Teaching Tomorrow’s Healthcare Providers

Today I taught the Nurse Practitioner class at Allen College.  Their Bone Health – Osteoporosis section included 3 hours of classroom lecture and discussion.  We also spent an hour teaching the basics of DXA, VFA, and how to read them correctly.  This is not a full ISCD course, but enough to get the students pointed in the right direction.

Teaching is stimulating.  Trying to distill the 250+ hours of Continuing Medical Education I have taken in the last 5 years down to 3 hours is challenging.  Students always have thought-provoking questions.  They make me think, and when I think, I learn too.

Teaching young health care providers how to evaluate bone health, and how to prevent and treat osteoporosis, is increasingly important as the population ages.  The golden years are not so golden if your spine crumbles and you break a hip.  We can prevent that.  We should prevent that.

Teaching mid-level providers is important.  Increasingly direct patient care is being done by Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants.  They are the future of medicine under current reforms.

My teaching activities are donated time, but I may benefit too.  I need a Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant to help staff my office.

Jay Ginther, MD

Categorised in: Bone Health, Osteoporosis