During the summer period, 2007, two new courses in the gerontology curriculum were offered for the first time. IHHS 467 (Fieldwork in Gerontology) is undergraduate course, and IHHS 567 (Fieldwork in Gerontology) is a graduate course. These courses provided a valuable internship experience for a current graduate student completing the Gerontology Graduate Certificate and a current undergraduate student completing the Gerontology minor. One student did fieldwork at the Naperville Manor Care residential facility, while the other student did fieldwork at the Arlington Heights Manor Care facility. Each intern worked under the close supervision of an expert Manor Care staff member, who served as an on-site preceptor.
These internships provided a very valuable, “hands-on” learning experience, in which each student was able to become practically and directly involved in actual work-related activities. Thus, each student was able to get a concrete sense of the work that goes on in an occupational setting likely to become increasingly important in the years ahead for students gaining academic preparation in gerontology. Each student saw, first-hand, how the many facets of a rehabilitation and long-term care organization operate together to provide care for an elderly person. The students closely observed a variety of operations, from client admission and Medicare insurance processing, through physical therapy and day-to-day activities, to planning and implementing social-support care for elderly patients and their family members. The experiences of the first two Fieldwork in Gerontology students were excellent, and they bode very well for those to follow.