CBS Evening News features UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine's nursing home immersion program

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric aired a segment on the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine's 'Learning by Living' program Nov. 26, 2010. The program places medical students into nursing homes as patients for 10 days or more to learn from an elderly patient's point of view.

CBS correspondent Jim Axelrod and a CBS news crew traveled to the Jewish Home for the Aged in Upper Manhattan and Chelsea Soldiers Home, Boston, Mass. last summer and spent several days interviewing program founder Marilyn Gugliucci, Ph.D, UNECOM director of geriatric education and research, Matt Sharbaugh, MSII, a UNECOM student who was placed at the Soldiers Home for 11 days, and Soo Chong Kim MSIV, a student from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, who spent 12 days at the Jewish Home for the Aged.

The CBS feature focused on Kim's experiences and included interviews with Gugliucci. Footage of Sharbaugh was also interwoven into the story. "It's about being in the shoes, in the wheelchair, living the life over an extended period of time, that's the key," said Gugliucci.

Twenty students have participated in the program over the last five years, 16 from UNECOM, four from other medical schools and health professions programs. The program has been featured in the past in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and AOL Online.  The CBS story was also featured on Charles Osgood's 'Osgood Files.' More on the Learning by Living Program.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.