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Preparing
for an aging boom
By Anita Martin
An unexpected calling
Sarah Snyder, D.O. (’06),
wasn’t exactly looking forward to her required geriatric
medicine rotation three years ago. “(The rotation is)
perceived as somewhat sad—not exciting like sports medicine
or cardiology,” she says. “I thought I wasn’t going to like
it.”
Snyder
originally planned to go into pediatrics. But that changed
when she began her geriatrics rotation.
“There
was one patient I interviewed, a female in her 90s, very
frail,” Snyder says, “She talked to me for about an hour
about how her life is, how it used to be.”
When
Snyder stood to go, she says the patient began crying. “She
just thanked me for listening to her. She said a lot of docs
are in and out, and that I really made her feel listened to.
Right there I thought, wow. This is it. This is my
calling.”
Snyder
is currently a family medicine resident at Firelands
Hospital in Sandusky, Ohio. She has completed three geriatric medicine
out-rotations as a resident: at Akron City Hospital, the
Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville, N.C.,
and Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Snyder
also received eight weeks of hospice training this year.
Next she plans to pursue a fellowship in geriatric medicine,
followed by another in palliative care (non-curative
medicine aimed at relieving pain and suffering) before
becoming a full-time geriatrician.
“That
(initial required geriatrics) rotation is the whole reason
I’m choosing geriatrics. It gave me a new respect for the
field,” Snyder says. “I really thought the experience was
much more in line with the osteopathic philosophy than a lot
of my other rotations, in terms of treating the whole
patient, physically, mentally and emotionally.”
To
illustrate the holistic approach to treating older adults,
Snyder describes how, upon starting her residency in Akron,
she was given a five-page questionnaire to go over with each
new patient. It covers everything from medications, sleep
patterns and diet to social habits, mood trends and living
space.
“I
found that I really love home visits, seeing people in their
own environment,” Snyder says. “Now I can’t imagine
practicing medicine without understanding how patients
function in their everyday lives.”
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