What is the impact of care internships on the image that first-year medical students have of older persons? Researchers from Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the Center for Healthy Aging of Copenhagen University examined this topic and published their findings on 20 January 2017 in international publication PLOS ONE. In the academic year 2012-2013, approximately 250 first-year medical students were surveyed, prior to and directly after their two-week compulsory care internship in a nursing home, rehabilitation centre, or psychogeriatric ward of a hospital.
The article When Contact Is Not Enough: Affecting First Year Medical Students’ Image Towards Older Persons by Sasmita Kusumastuti, Esther van Fenema, Eugenie Polman, Wilco Achterberg, Jolanda Lindenberg and Rudi Westendorp was published by international, peer-reviewed, open-access, online publication PLOS ONE on 20 January 2017.