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You know that old saying that you can’t understand where someone has been until you walk a mile in their shoes? Well then it can also be said that you can’t understand where an aging person has been until you sit for a while in their wheelchair.

Of course, it is inevitable that we will all grow older, and many of us will age with reasonable quality of mental and physical health. But unfortunately, some of us will age facing various health problems. It is very important that we try to understand the full range of possible health issues that can result as a consequence of aging. This will not only help us to understand and assist our parents and other loved ones as they age, but in the long-term, such understanding will help us to effectively deal with our own aging process and our own future, personal needs.

This may have been part of the consideration that led Kristen Murpy to live in a nursing home in Mamaroneck, New York for ten days. In a recent article by Katie Zezima, Murphy’s experience during her immersion into the world of nursing home life was discussed.

In 2005, the medical school at the University of New England (UNE) in Biddeford, Maine initiated a unique, hands-on program that encouraged and allowed its medical students to experience life as a nursing home patient. The theory behind the program is that if future doctors can better understand how their older patients live and what they go through on a daily basis, then those doctors can better treat and care for older patients because they have truly walked in their shoes. As an added bonus, the program hopes to inspire and steer medical students to choose geriatric care as their focus. This specialization is in near desperate need of new doctors.

According to Dr. Marilyn Gugliucci, the director of geriatrics education at UNE medical school, students participating in the program are given a “diagnosis” of an ailment and are expected to live the same way as someone who actually has the condition. “They keep a daily journal chronicling their experiences and, in most cases, debunking their preconceived notions,” she added.

Gugliucci quickly found many nursing homes that were willing to participate and an abundance of students who were willing to volunteer. Rita Morgan, administrator of the Sarah Neuman Center for Healthcare and Rehabilitation believes it is important for medical students to study themselves and their own feelings about living in a nursing home.

Murphy, a medical student interested in geriatric medicine, lived at the Mamaroneck facility for 10 days in order to learn about what it’s like to be a nursing home patient. The perfectly healthy, 38-year-old had to learn the best way to navigate a wheelchair around a small room, endure the humiliation that comes with being helped in the bathroom, try to sleep through night checks, and become attuned to the emotions of her fellow residents.

She was actually scared of nursing homes at first. This was instilled in her at an early age when she visited her grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. Murphy believes the program has helped her resolve these former feelings. “I don’t think you can be a good doctor if you’re scared of the place where a lot of your patients live,” she added.

The first few days at the nursing home included filling out paperwork, undergoing a full-body mole and sore check, eating pureed foods, and being raised out of bed with a lift. But perhaps the sometimes overwhelming reality of nursing home life did not fully hit Murphy until she wedged her wheelchair into a corner and could not get out. This particular experiential moment left her crying in frustration. She recalled, “All I wanted to do was shut my door and stay in here.” The prescribed “diagnosis” assigned to her was a mild stroke that affected her right side, as well as difficulty swallowing and chronic lung disease.

But because of her training, Murphy felt like she had a coping advantage that regular nursing residents probably do not have. “I understood that I had to go out,” she noted, “not everyone does.” In fact, some patients may talk for hours, while others act out physically and emotionally. Murphy said she soon learned that many patients cried because they knew that they would most likely never live anywhere else, or because they missed their family and their old life.

It is not surprising that the experience emotionally affected the medical student. “At times I felt really lonely and got depressed. Sometimes it was an emotional roller coaster—up and down, up and down.” She continued, “When I came in, I was worried about working with older folks because I was afraid I wouldn’t be good at it. Now, if anything, I’m worried I’ll love them too much and it will really hurt to work with folks at the end of their lives.”

Most residents knew why she was there. During her going-away party they presented her with a big card, and shouts of “We love Kristen!” were heard throughout. The hardest lesson she learned (that for some people, it is better to be in a wheelchair or to have limited mobility), will make her become a better doctor, she said. Murphy also noted that her time at the nursing home, where she ate, slept, and used a wheelchair, solidified her desire to work with older people.

Geriatric specialists hope that the program and others like it will help generate interest in the profession—one of the most underrepresented fields in medicine. Medical schools and residencies require little to no geriatric training, and many students are reluctant to get into the field because it is among the lowest paid in medicine.

There is an almost emergency drought when it comes to geriatric specialists. For instance, in 2005 there was one geriatrician for every 5,000 people over 65. According to the American Geriatrics Society, by 2030, that ratio is expected to increase to one for every 8,000 patients! Geriatricians must also participate in a two-year fellowship program after medical school to become certified. In 2007, only 253 of these 400 fellowship slots were filled.