LECTURES

1. Distinctness of old-age diseases. Major differences in the course of diseases at a young and old age; issues encountered in diagnostics and treatment of elderly people, e.g. basic knowledge of polypragmasy and polypharmacotherapy

2. Physiological ageing. Physiological changes associated with human ageing and practical application of knowledge of differential diagnosis and treatment of ailments and diseases typical of old age. 

3. Types of ageing. Successful ageing. Definition of old age, ageing, classification of the old age period according to the WHO, types of ageing. Necessary conditions for successful ageing.

4. Demographic issues. Long-term care in geriatrics. Geriatrics and palliative and long-term care. Types of long-term care in Poland and systemic deficits in this regard.

5. Health promotion in geriatrics. The issues of anti-ageing medicine and proper diet, prevention of sarcopenia, dementia, falls and infections at an old age.

6. Frailty syndrome. Definition, pathogenesis, symptoms, treatment/prevention and consequences of the frailty syndrome

7. Therapeutic decisions at an old age. The tools facilitating decisions at an old age – completing the causative therapy and replacing it with palliative care and quality of life improvement.

8. Demography and hospitalisation. Organisation of geriatric care – an integrated model of interdisciplinary care, forms of care in Poland. Economic, care-related and hospitalisation-related issues at an old age.

SEMINAR

Discussing geriatric issues by the clinical case method. 1. Urological issues, including urinary incontinence, urinary retention, and urinary tract infections in elderly people.  2. Gastric issues and reproductive organ descent and prolapse. Dysphagia and appetite disorders, constipation and diarrhoea, faecal incontinence geriatric patients; genital disorders in elderly women, mainly female genital prolapse. 3. Falls, gait disturbances, fainting in elderly people. Causes, prevention, consequences.   4. “Pharmacohazardology" – issues of polypragmasy and treatment complications at an old age.  5. Practical training at the Centre for Medical Simulation. Bedsores – practice in applying specialist dressings. Delirium – gamification – using games to practice diagnostics, treatment and prevention of delirium.

CLASSES

Day 1: CGA – comprehensive geriatric assessment – practical training: discussing the different nature of old-age illness with clinical cases of Internal Disease Ward patients as examples. Day 2: dementia, delirium and depression at an old age – clinical cases. Behaviour disorders in dementia, old-age sleep disorders, care-related issues – clinical cases. Day 3: Bedsores, prevention and treatment. Clinical cases of patients in the Care and Treatment Facility in Dobre Miasto. End-of-life procedures. Legal issues emerging when a patient cannot grant informed consent for treatment.