VHA Cognitive Impairment

The goal of this Veterans Health Administration (VHA) geriatrics workforce effort is to design an educational game that provides an adaptable, competency-based learning experience and develops "geriatrics-equipped" inter-professional team members. This essential training will occur in the context of a compelling demographic imperative; the number of patients age 65 or older is expected to increase by 62.4% by 2030 (Ortman, Velkoff & Hogan, 2014). Furthermore, most health care professionals anticipate that they will care for older adults in their future practice, yet more than half report limited or no formal training in geriatrics and associated dementia care before entering practice. As is the case with geriatrics education, most recent graduates of clinical training programs have received limited and variable education in recognizing, diagnosing and managing cognitive impairment and dementia, and those who have graduated more than 10 years ago receive even less.