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BIDDEFORD, Maine

ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ osteopathic medical students publish innovative immersion research

Student immersion research

Six students from the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s College of Osteopathic Medicine recently published their research after participating in groundbreaking hospice and nursing home immersion projects spearheaded by Marilyn R. Gugliucci, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Geriatrics Medicine. All students who conduct this qualitative ethnographic research are required to write journals during the three phases of the research. To date, 28 students have been immersed in the Hospice Home. Gugliucci implemented this project in December 2014 and she has been immersing students each month during the academic year.  

Four of the students worked with Gugliucci to publish two articles on the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ COM 48 Hour Hospice Home Immersion Project. Natasha Tobarran (COM, ’17) and Taylor Byrne (COM, β€˜17) were admitted into the Gosnell Memorial Hospice Home in Scarborough, Maine in April of 2015. The accounts of their experiences and caring for primarily older adults at the end of life was published in the Journal of Gerontology and Geriatric Research in an article titled, β€œAccelerated Medical Education: Impact of a 48 Hour Hospice Home Immersion.”

Caitlin Farrell (COM, ’17) and Jenifer Kodela, (COM, ’17) were also immersed in the hospice home for 48 hours, but at different times and with different partners. Farrell was immersed in February 2015 and Kodela was immersed in July 2015. They compared their data, which is in the form of journals that they each wrote, and identified results that were relational. Their article was published in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine.

 

Two ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ COM students participated in the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔCOM Learning by Living Nursing Home Immersion Project. They were β€œadmitted” into two different nursing homes in two states during the summer of 2015. Ianna Hondros-MaCarthy (COM, ’18) Philip Barber (COM, ’18) and Gugliucci published an article in the International Journal of Clinical Medicine, spring 2016. For this research project, the students were admitted for 11 days into their respective nursing homes, complete with a diagnosis and standard procedures of care. Barber lived in a dementia unit at the nursing home. The data outcomes for both students highlighted the importance of empathy in medical care, which became the focus of their published article titled, β€œLearning by Living: Empathy Learned through an Extended Medical Education Immersion Project.”

 

To learn more about the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, visit

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About the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ

The ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ 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 . 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.