The development of a European curriculum in Geriatric Emergency Medicine

Older people represent a growing proportion of attendees in Emergency Departments across Europe. Traditionally Emergency Departments have not focused on care for older people, especially those with frailty. Similarly, geriatric services have not traditionally focused upon the care of older people in Emergency Departments. This work seeks to bring together the two disciplines of Geriatric and Emergency Medicine through a defined and validated curriculum on Geriatric Emergency Medicine. Domains and items for inclusion in the curriculum were derived through a combination of literature reviewing and a nominal group workshop. The domains and items underwent validation using a Delphi technique involving the European Societies of Geriatric and Emergency Medicine. In the development stage, 100 individual learning outcomes were identified, reflecting 16 domains; following the stage 2 validation process, 98 items remained. All items were approved by the relevant EU societies. In the final validation step, the curriculum was formally approved by the UEMS sections for Geriatric Medicine and Emergency Medicine (responsible for curriculae in the respective disciplines).