Addressing the Needs of an Aging Population Through Health Professions Education

Book excerpt: The National Academies Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education hosted a Fall 2022 workshop series to explore the various needs of an aging population and an ideal health workforce with the numbers and skillset to match those needs. Discussions included the composition of the intended health workforce, training requirements for each level of care provider, who would provide the training and education, and in what setting the training would take place. Given these considerations and learner reluctance to work with elder adults, implementation science was introduced as a path forward. Implementation science is the study of methods and strategies that facilitate the use of evidence-based practice and research into regular use by practitioners and policymakers. This proceedings document summarizes workshop discussions.