Geriatrician Career Guide and Counseling

Question: Help looking for a good Geriatrician doctor for my 86 yr old father.? My father lives at home and I would like to find him a good geriatric doctor who actually cares about his/her patients. We live in the Austin area and I am able to take him to all his appointments. Please provide ANY leads...my father needs medical attention and refuses to go to the hospital since he only has Medicare and doesn't want to burden us with aftermath of medical bills. So he agreed to go to a doctor. Please help!

Answer: I wish I could give you a miracle, but I cannot. I take care of my grandmother and to be honest, in Texas, it is hit or miss. You have to call around and find doctors who take your father's Medicare and then try them out. You may have to see many to find the one that is the best fit for you. It took us several tries and several months to find the standard of care which we felt was best for her. And, with Medicare you can call the toll free number on the card to get a list of providers or you can find them via medicare's website but that list is not updated as frequently as it should be and you will be given doctors who are no longer accepting medicare or who are not accepting new patients. Even if your next door neighbor or best friend raved about a doctor that still would not make him the miracle doc you are looking for. He (or she) may not accept medicare. Or they may have a full practice and not have room for another patient. Or they may have too many patients to give the personal touch you look for. Or they just may have a personality or bedside manner that doesn't fit you or your father's needs or personality. Start with the phone book. Call around. Ask questions. Ask what hospital they have priveleges at too, if the hospital he works at is across town and there is a hospital down the street that your dad would rather go to if he needs it, then you have to consider that too.

Question: Incentives for becoming a Geriatrician? What type of legislation can the government enact to encourage med students to study geriatrics and become geriatricians?

Answer: Governmental intervention traditionally has the opposite effect of the stated intent. Let market forces rule. The PROBLEM is, that most of our geriatric patients are on GOVERNMENT health care - medicare and medicaid, which pays crappy, is extremely regulated, and is a PITB to work with. So people who do think about geriatrics for the job security, also have to consider the already heavy governmental interference and income limitations that come with that practice. The reason people DON'T do geriatrics as much, IS the government intervention we already have!!

Question: Is there a doctor for young adults, like there are pediatricians and geriatricians? My insurance says I can't go to my pediatrician anymore since I'm 18. I still don't think I have the same problems as a mid-aged person.

Answer: a general practitioner or someone does family medicine will cover you and can cover you at any age

Question: Does anyone agree that Oscar the hospital cat is probably a serial killer? : Could hospital cat be angel of death? - He is a two-year-old cat and looks innocent enough. But at the nursing home where he lives in the US state of Rhode Island, Oscar has developed a reputation as an angel of death. Since being adopted as a kitten by staff at the advanced dementia unit of Providence's Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Oscar has revealed a rather morbid tendency to pick which patient is going to die next. According to David Dosa, a geriatrician at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Oscar makes regular rounds, looking in on patients and giving them a quick sniff, before either moving on or settling down for a cuddle.

Answer: I don't think so animals just have a sense of these things.I believe like the article says this lets them know when something it going to happen.When Oscar sits by that person the nurses know to call the family.I think this is a wonderful thing it lets the family be there for their loved one.

Question: Any of you a geriatrician? I am one

Answer: I work in a Residential Home for The Elderly. 14 years experience. 7 in Home Care and 7 in the Residential Home NVQ2.

Question: What are some doctors that specialize in a specific field of medicine (but don't do surgery)? like a neurologist/cardiologist/geriatrician..etc... can you give me a list of others

Answer: besides the ones you listed: anesthesiologist (although they are in the operating room too) rheumatologist infectious disease nephrologist endocrinologist pulmonologist gastroenterologist (they do lots of procedures though) hematologist/oncologist emergency (they do small procedures) dermatologist (they do small procedures) family/general practitioner (the good ones will do small procedures) internist pediatrician pathologist (excluding autopsies) radiologist (some do procedures) Someone else listed ophthalmology, gynecology, and ENT, but this is incorrect. All three of those specialties perform surgery.

Question: What type of doctor will be most needed in 10 years? 1) A family doctor / internal medicine, 2) a gastroenterologist (stomach, intestines, liver specialist), 3) a pulmonologist (lung specialist), 4) a neurologist (brain specialist), or 5) a geriatrician (a primary care doctor specializing in care for senior citizens)?

Answer: GERIATRICS.

Question: Is it possible to be an M.D. and a mother? I am planning on being premed in college. I have also thought about being a PA. Can doctors have decent family lives? I am specifically interested in something like primary care.....pediatrician, geriatrician, or family medicine. I know that this career requires a lot of sacrifices. Would I be better off as a PA? Does anyone know what the work hours are like for a primary care physician?

Answer: no, it is absolutely impossible. There are no female doctors that have children. (end sarcasm)..... of course you can, but be prepared for all of the work involved.

Question: any geriatricians - is this a good job?

Answer: oh yeah, it gives a really good pay and since you are a woman (I'm not sexist ^_^) it would give a good mutual relationship with the patients too.

Question: How about this? For the gal that sked about pets and sick patients. Cat predicts deaths in nursing home By RAY HENRY Associated Press Writer PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Dogs can sometimes predict an epileptic owner's seizure or sniff at an owner's mole, signaling a possible cancer. Now, it appears a cat can predict the deaths of patients in a nursing home. When Oscar curls up on a patient's bed and stays there, the staff knows it's time to call the family. It usually means the patient has less than four hours to live. The feline's accuracy has been observed in 25 cases at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. "He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," Dr. David Dosa said in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University. The 2-year-old Oscar was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at Steere House, which treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses. After about six months, the staff noticed the cat would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, and those he stayed with would wind up dying in a few hours. Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said. Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill. She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near. Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside. Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure. No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him. Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying. If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said. Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance of saying goodbye to the dying. Oscar recently received a wall plaque commending his "compassionate hospice care." ___ AP science writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Answer: Lets face it, in a nursing home theres a high chance of patients dying so this is hardly concrete evidence!

Question: Medical Vocabulary help...? Okay so in my Medical Careers class we have vocabulary tests every friday. My teacher writes them on the board but I think she mispells some because I cant get definitions on some words. So please correct the spelling if you can. Thank you! ^_^ -Obsteterician -Opthalmogist -Geriatrician -Anesthesiologist and -Appendicitis -Senioritis -Celonitis -Conjunjitivitis

Answer: An obstetrician is a doctor who deals with pregnancy and childbirth. An ophthalmologist is an eye doctor, but not just someone who deals with eye tests and glasses/contacts, they're more specialists that deal with more in depth issues with the eyes. A geriatrician is a doctor who specializes in treatment of the elderly. An anesthesiologist is a doctor who specializes in anaesthesia, generally during surgical procedures.

Question: Please help me with my granny! She is 95 and we took her in, since we believe we can provide her with anything? she needs. Thank goodness we can afford a live-in aide to keep her company and tend to her if and when i am not home. We have known this woman (her aide) for over 8 years, but gramma has taking it as a duty to accuse her of stealing her stuff. Underwear, shampoo, even old pictures. My concern is that in the end, nothing is missing. We always find what she says was stolen, and both her doctor and geriatrician agree she is not senile or suffers from alzheirmer's. This is turning into a nightmare, we both work, so we cannot leave her alone (she eats 5 meals a day, ya, i know) and a retirement home is out of the question. If her aide leaves, it's going to be a huge problem for us, but she insists she steals from her. IS this normal behavior among elderly people?

Answer: this behaviour is not uncommon.there could be several reasons for it *granny puts things in a "safe" place and forgets where that is .she does not need to have alzheimers to forget things. *attention seeking *having bit by bit lost control over her life for years ,she is exercising what little control she can. *the aide ,to granny, may represent loss of her own independence. *granny might feel there is a personality clash ,or she simply may not like the aide. most likely it's the first and third reasons . helpful hints would be to give her choices ,eg , what to wear ,eat, daily activities etc.....let her know she's being heard and taken notice of when she speaks ,validate her feelings. i'm sure the aide understands ,and also does her best .great to see family take care of the elderly, it's not easy ,so don't forget to take care of your selves as well. good luck.

Question: Analogies, i suck at these!? please help me answer these! 1.DEMONSTRATE:DISPLAY a.enervate:bolster b.perpetuate:preserve c.entice:shun d.rescind:unveil e.marshal:juxtapose 2.LEAVEN:ENLIVEN a.espouse:repudiate b.loll:laze c.matriculate:enroll d.pique:assuage e.countenance:proscribe 3.DISLIKE:ABHOR a.inconvenience:stultify b.stymie:permit c.ossify:harden d.pacify:codify e.execute:orient 4.STIFLE:ANNIHILATE a.slap:pummel b.wither:promote c.fructify:sweeten d.embellish:gallivant e.aggravate:refine 5.SCULPTOR:ATELIER a.chancellor:committee b.geriatrician:senior c.psychotherapist:office d.prince:dominion e.archaeologist:dig

Answer: 1 b 2 c 3 c 4 a 5 c