AARP Bulletin features Marilyn Gugliucci's Learning by Living nursing home immersion program

The online AARP Bulletin on Dec. 12, 2011 featured the UNE College of Osteopathic Medicine's Learning by Living nursing home immersion program, designed by Marilyn Gugliucci, Ph.D., director of geriatric research.

The story focuses on COM student Gianna Petrone MSII, who spent 10 days in Monarch Center memory care facility in Saco, Maine as a patient with a diagnosis of congestive heart failure and dementia.

"I had always hoped to be a compassionate doctor," Petrone said, "but now I will have much more understanding of people with this disease, their families, and what it's like to actually live in long-term care."

The story also looks at the Learning by Living program in the context of the projected shortage of geriatric physician specialists over the next two decades.

A program like this, Gugliucci hopes, not only imbues health care professionals with empathy and insight, but will attract more medical students to the field of geriatrics. At a time when the boomer masses are aging, the ratio of geriatric specialists is falling.

The program has been placing students in nursing homes since 2005 and has seen 28 students complete the program thus far. The story also mentions COM student Mike Light MSII who participated in the program at the Maine Veterans Home in Scarborough.

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.