Too often the first contact medical school students have with older adults is in the hospital, the emergency room and at nursing homes. Consequently they may lack an understanding of what makes healthy seniors tick.
But in one of the longest lasting programs of its kind, "Tell Me Your Story," University of Cincinnati Medical School students interview retirement home residents to gain a better understanding of their health care. Nearly 200 medical students interviewed 65 couples and singles at Maple Knoll Village in Springdale last week.
Marilyn Yungk, 87, and her husband Ed, 94, are healthy enough to live by themselves at Maple Knoll. They enjoy talking to people and opened their home last week to three UC Medical students to be interviewed.
Medical student Hillary Purcell wanted to know more about what they eat.
"Have you noticed any changes in your meals and in your cooking or even in your appetite since you've been living here at Maple Knoll?" Purcell asks.
Marilyn cooked steak the night before for Ed's birthday.
"I don't think so, and if I don't feel well I can call up and order a meal to be delivered here and then the Manor House is right out our back door and they serve a nice lunch,” Marilyn says.
Marilyn mentioned she does not want to get another colonoscopy. She also told a story about her neighbor.
"Her doctor wanted her to have a chest X-ray and she didn't think it was necessary and he said, 'Well, I'll sleep a lot better tonight if you had it,' and that was kind of persuasive, I think, and he didn't say you must do it,” she tells the group.
One thing the students want to know is where the Yungks get their health care information.
"I read a lot," Marilyn says. "The magazine we get is for over 50. It's full of good health and nutrition information. And I'm on the computer too. I do pay attention to things I hear and read. I do ask the doctor in our family (her son-in-law) what he thinks. Sometimes we don't agree but I at least like to hear what he has to say."
The Yungks are from Wadsworth, Ohio, and moved to Cincinnati more than a decade ago to be closer to family. They've lived at Maple Knoll for five years.
Marilyn says her favorite thing is the other people who live at Maple Knoll.
"They're very interesting and have had interesting lives and most of them share those things in one way or the other,” she says.
Geriatrician Dr. Susan Davis says often, the medical students and interviewees stay in touch.
"We've had reports of really great conversations, relationships that have been built of out those initial interviews,” Davis says. “The older adults living here at Maple Knoll Village in Springdale are eager to talk to the students."
In fact, she says, Maple Knoll Village residents sometimes get their feelings hurt if they are not asked to participate year after year. Davis says UC has one of the longest running partnerships of its kind.
