Resident Physicians

The Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine offers a variety of curricula, clinical rotations, and mentorship opportunities for medical students. See below for a list of offerings, and please reach out to the contacts listed below for more information.

Clinical Experiences

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For more information, please contact Dr. Milagros Silva.

For more information, please contact Dr. Emily Fessler.

A 2-4 week elective on the inpatient Geriatrics consult service is available for interested residents. For more information, please contact Dr. Emily Coskun.

Location: NYP-Weill Cornell Center on Aging (525 E 68th St, Payson 2)
Duration of Elective: 2 weeks 
Target Learner for Elective: Any PGY level

Learning Objectives:

  1. Understand the components and importance of the Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment.
  2. Understand the roles and importance of the interdisciplinary team for geriatric care.
  3. Evaluate and manage falls.
  4. Recognize and avoid polypharmacy.
  5. Learn diagnosis and treatments for dementia.
  6. Demonstrate appropriate dosing of medications based on geriatric pharmacokinetics.
  7. Communicate effectively with patients with cognitive and sensory impairment.
  8. Effectively manage pain in elderly patients.
  9. Tailor treatment to fit patients’ goals and values.

Elective Description: Geriatrics is an exciting field where you can meet fascinating patients with a wealth of stories and experiences. Older patients’ complex medical, social and functional histories make outpatient geriatrics both challenging and rewarding. Care can be provided to older patients in various settings including house calls, clinic, PACE (Program for All-inclusive Care of the Elderly), sub-acute rehab, skill nursing facility, and assisted living. On this rotation, you’ll be exposed to many of these settings and learn which patients qualify and would benefit from each one. It often takes a team to effectively care for an older adult including different disciplines (social workers, nurse practitioners, nurses, aides, physical and occupational therapists, nutritionists). This rotation will expose you to the important roles each of these disciplines plays in geriatric care and how to utilize them effectively with your older patients. You’ll have the chance to learn geriatric subspecialty care and geriatric primary care, with help from our geriatric psychiatry team, geriatric cardiologist, and memory and movement disorders neurologists. You will also be exposed to outpatient palliative care, as assessing goals and managing symptoms are crucial elements of outpatient geriatrics.

Elective Rotation Director: Dr. Emily Coskun

Elective Rotation Support (administrative coordinator): Allison Lasky

Location: Weill Cornell Medical Center/NYP Hospital
Duration of Elective: 2 or 4 weeks  
Target Learner for Elective: Any PGY level

Learning Objectives:

  1. The learner will be able to independently perform primary palliative care competencies, including: facilitating advance care planning and basic goals of care discussions; addressing pain and common symptoms; and establishing a therapeutic relationship in the setting of grief, complex family/caregiver dynamics, and/or the end of life in the inpatient setting.
  2. The learner will develop an understanding of transdisciplinary teamwork and learn to communicate effectively with the interprofessional palliative care team.
  3. The learner will develop an understanding of social work and chaplaincy within the palliative care field and the role these two disciplines play in patient, family and team support. 

Elective Description: Inpatient palliative care is focused on complex spiritual, psychosocial, and symptom management needs in the patient with complex medical illness. In this elective, learners will experience inpatient palliative care with The Weill Cornell Palliative Care team composed of an interdisciplinary team. Learners will spend time with each of these disciplines to broaden their understanding of the roles of chaplains, social workers and advanced practice providers within the field. They will take part in didactics and be expected to complete a series of self directed learning modules as part of their elective.

Elective Rotation Directors: Dr. Ian Kwok, Dr. Navendra Singh, Anne Kim, NP

Elective Rotation Support (administrative coordinator): Allison Lasky

Location: NYP-Weill Cornell and home visits (Manhattan)
Duration of Elective: 2 or 4 weeks 
Target Learner for Elective: Any PGY level

Learning Objectives:

  1. The learner will be able to independently perform primary palliative care competencies, including: facilitating advance care planning and basic goals of care discussions; addressing pain and common symptoms; and establishing a therapeutic relationship in the setting of grief, complex family/caregiver dynamics, and/or the end of life.
  2. The learner will develop an understanding of transdisciplinary teamwork and learn to communicate effectively with the interprofessional palliative care team.
  3. The learner will identify unique needs of the home-bound palliative care patient and caregiver population, and how to leverage community partnerships to help address these needs.

Elective Description: Outpatient Palliative Care provides an extra layer of support to help patients and caregivers cope with serious illness. In this elective, learners will experience outpatient Palliative Care in clinic/telehealth settings (Weill Cornell Outpatient Palliative Care) as well as in home visit settings across Manhattan (Palliative Care House Call Program). Learners will spend time with different members of the Palliative Care interdisciplinary team, including physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, and chaplains, as well as taking part in group didactics and high-quality self-learning courses.

Elective Rotation Directors: Dr. Milagros Silva, Dr. Ian Kwok, Dr. Navendra Singh

Elective Rotation Support (administrative coordinator): Pam Ansell

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