Almost one in five geriatric patients suffers an adverse event during the transition from hospital to home. Almost 1/3 of those are preventable! The Fast Forward Rounds (FFR) aims to improve these numbers by providing a curriculum that emphasizes for medical students the importance of transition of care. 

Introduced in July 2006 to teach key aspects of the discharge planning process for older adults with chronic illness, the program has been presented successfully for several years at the Weill Cornell Medical Center. The main objective of FFR is to encourage students to involve patients in the development of a comprehensive care plan, and to communicate that plan to the professionals who will provide post-hospital care. Geared for medical students in their clinical years, the course emphasizes the importance of transitions of care, teaches comprehensive discharge planning, provides an overview of services available, promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, and encourages students to develop comprehensive care plans. As the name of the course implies, learners are asked to fast forward to events that may affect their patients as they transition through the medical system, as well as to learn to anticipate challenges that may arise and to problem-solve ways to address them. 

This product provides the materials needed to implement a 3-hour course. The materials include a complete Facilitators Guide with detailed instructions for implementation of the course, reading materials for self-paced study, a DVD with two fictional patient-doctor interactions to illustrate the importance of the topic, a PowerPoint presentation for content delivery via a lecture, and a board game created using PowerPoint. 

The DVD is entertaining. It begins with a humorous introduction modeled after the scrolling text Star Wars intro, complete with dramatic music. The scenarios do a good job of highlighting an obviously bad, yet realistic, doctor-patient interaction in an emergency room setting, which provides an opportune start for a discussion. The Monopoly-style board game looks like a fun way to encourage the students to better comprehend the subject matter. The rules are very simple, and it looks like a relatively short game (not a 6-hour Monopoly game), which is perfect for a classroom setting. The PowerPoint portion of the game provides a visually interesting way to present the questions, instead of simply providing a stack of cards. The materials are sure to retain students’ interest and ensure that all types of learners can benefit, whether they learn better from a visual presentation, a lecture, or from the self-directed study of reading materials.

For better implementation, the educators who created the program suggest using medical residents as adjunct faculty. While designed to engage medical students as active learners, this process allows residents to enhance their teaching skills and reinforce their knowledge of chronic illness care. This resource is available right now on POGOe at no cost. For more information about the FFR course at Cornell University, go to www.cornellaging.com/medical/.