Training Tomorrow’s Clinical Leaders
When you come to Hebrew SeniorLife for clinical experience, you’ll be learning from Harvard Medical School faculty in an organization that sees 4,500 seniors each day. You’ll also learn from those older adults – their life experience and health care needs provide valuable lessons not just for those continuing a career in geriatrics, but for clinicians in any specialty.
Students, interns, residents, and fellows in medicine and dentistry who train at Hebrew SeniorLife gain valuable experience in a wide variety of care settings including:
- Outpatient care
- Community-based health
- Home care
- Post-acute rehabilitation
- Skilled nursing
- Long-term chronic care
- Palliative care and hospice
Trainees in medicine also have opportunities to collaborate with researchers from our Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research.
Read more to see the specific opportunities available, or visit our academic programs website for complete details and qualifications.
All first-year students at Harvard Medical School spend a half-day at Hebrew SeniorLife’s Center Communities of Brookline senior living community for a geriatrics assessment program. Working in groups of two to three, students are paired with a Harvard Medical School preceptor, many of whom are also Hebrew SeniorLife clinicians. The groups are paired with a Center Communities of Brookline resident so students can learn how to conduct a geriatrics assessment.
Learn more about the geriatrics assessment program:
Dental students also do rotations at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center’s dental clinic, in partnership with the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Psychology students participate in practicum rotations at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center locations in Boston and at NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham, as well at Hebrew SeniorLife senior living communities, under the supervision of our Harvard Medical School-appointed psychiatrists. Students gain exposure to a wide breadth of inpatient and outpatient experiences, including psychological assessments; individual, group, couples, and family psychotherapy; and psychological consultation.
We welcome graduate medical trainees, including internal medicine, psychiatry, and dental residents. Trainees gain experience in inpatient and outpatient settings, working with seniors of all abilities, from those living independently to frail, medically complex patients.
Hebrew SeniorLife is a partner and teaching site for the ACGME-accredited Harvard Medical School Multi-Campus Fellowship in Geriatric Medicine.
Established in 1978, the program is one of the oldest geriatrics fellowships in the country. Graduates have gone on to become leaders in health care and research across the U.S. We’ve trained more geriatric fellows than any single teaching institution in the U.S.
In addition to Hebrew SeniorLife, participating sites include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which is the sponsoring institution; Brigham & Women's Hospital; VA Boston Healthcare System; Mt. Auburn Hospital, and Element Care/PACE. Hebrew SeniorLife provides administrative leadership as well as financial, educational, and clinical resources.
Hebrew SeniorLife is a unique environment for fellows to train in given our large continuum of care, including independent living, assisted living, long-term chronic care, medically acute care, post-acute rehabilitative care, and the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, one of the largest gerontological research facilities in a clinical setting in the U.S.
The first year of the program is clinically focused. Fellows rotate through the participating sites, including at least six weeks providing care for post-acute patients and primary care for long-term chronic care hospital patients at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center.
Interested and qualified fellows may remain for a second year of training to hone their leadership skills in preparation for an academic career. Second-year fellows choose one of three specialized tracks: clinician-educator, research, or health care policy.
In addition to the Harvard Medical School geriatric fellowship, we welcome psychology interns, and fellows in geriatric psychiatry, palliative care, and dentistry. This includes a geriatric psychiatry fellowship offered in partnership with Partners HealthCare and McLean Hospital, which provides experience treating older adults in a long-term chronic care setting at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center.
For students training to become nurse practitioners, Hebrew SeniorLife has partnered with several Boston-area MSN-NP and D-NP schools to help meet students’ practicum requirements. Nurse practitioner students are precepted by Hebrew SeniorLife nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physicians. Clinical experiences happen in our post-acute care rehabilitative units at our two Hebrew Rehabilitation Center locations, in Boston and at NewBridge on the Charles in Dedham. Affiliated schools include Boston College, UMass Boston, and Simmons College.
For clinicians who wish to become researchers, Hebrew SeniorLife’s Marcus Institute offers a number of grant-funded opportunities for residents and fellows. Many Marcus Institute faculty hold appointments at Harvard Medical School, including six full professors of medicine. The Marcus Institute’s research portfolio places it in the top 15% of institutions funded by the National Institutes of Health.
